Roles Reversed
by Bleacher27
Summary: Rukia has died in the arrancar war, and Ichigo has been made taichou. Ichigo is now 150 years old. ICHIRUKI!
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Ichigo panted. He was in the middle of the battle with Grimmjow. He cursed. His hollow transformation was what worried him, as well as the fact that his hollow self may decide to manifest himself when he was weakened.

"Fuck," Ichigo cursed again. His transformation would only last about ten seconds, and Grimmjow already released his sword. The last time he had shown his hollow mask to Grimmjow, he still couldn't defeat him in the allotted ten seconds. Back then Grimmjow didn't even release his Zanpakto yet.

Ichigo wasn't winning—his bankai form was only barely keeping him faster than Grimmjow, but he wasn't losing.

"Getsuga Tenshou!" Ichigo shouted, desperate. He didn't really put in a lot of reiatsu, so it barely made a scratch on Grimmjow.

Grimmjow fell back, his arms in an "X". He laughed. "Is this all the power you have? Even with your hollow transformation, this is all you can muster? Ha ha ha!"

"Sh—Shut up!" Ichigo grit his teeth, knowing what he had to do. "Inoue, get away from here, and take Nell, the small hollow, with you! It would really suck, Inoue," he shouted, "If you get affected by this. I can't quite control this scale of attack yet."

Ichigo's reiatsu suddenly spiked. Grimmjow's face froze, realizing what may happen. He took a few steps back and assumed a defensive stance. Ichigo's reiatsu was swirling around him, a mini tornado, with Ichigo as the eye.

Ichigo leapt up into the air, and in the excitement, didn't realize his mask has now been on for a full five minutes, and counting. He put both hands on the hilt, and inputted all of the reiatsu he built up. It was an all or none shot.

"GETSUGA TENSHOU!" he roared. The black light didn't just fill the room—it annihilated it. Good thing Inoue was out of the room. Seriously.

It hit its target, but with the dust in the air from the impact, he couldn't see how Grimmjow fared from the attack.

"Sh—Shit, you bastard," Grimmjow groaned before disappearing.

Ichigo panted. He used up the last of his reiatsu with the last attack.

"Inoue? Nell? It's alright to come out now." Ichigo forcibly had his mask disappear. It had been over an hour since he had first activated the mask (yeah, I know, the times don't match up). He had his bankai disappear too.

"Bwuaaaaa! Ithigo! Nell wath tho worried! I thought I told you noth to uth that power anymore!" Nell cried as she jumped onto him.

"Ow… Nell, I just came back from a battle. I'm injured. Please get off, it hurts," Ichigo groaned as he grimaced.

"Yes Nell, please get off Kurosaki-kun. I need to heal him," Inoue said, a pained smile on her face.

"Ugh. Sorry, Inoue. I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but could you make this quick? Rukia's reiatsu is fading fast."

"Hmm? Kuchiki-san? Oh, of course then!" Another pained smile.

Suddenly, a portal opened up in a flash of light. Ulquiorra.

"SHIT!" Ichigo scrambled up, with the help of Inoue.

"Inoue. Take Nell and run towards Rukia. I'll catch up."

"No…"

"RUN!"

Ulquiorra turned towards Inoue. "You won't be going anywhere."

"Did I say you could interfere? Your opponent is me."

But unfortunately, after his battle with Grimmjow, it took all of his energy just to stand up.

"_Fuck. Not good."_ Ichigo thought. Ulquiorra smiled a grim smile.

"You don't even have the energy to activate bankai, let alone your mask. Do not play with me, brat," Ulquiorra said, his face almost actually expressing emotion—contempt. He swiped at Ichigo with his sword, making a large slash across his chest.

"F—Fuck," Ichigo groaned, dropping to his knees, struggling to stay conscious.

All of a sudden, Ulquiorra froze. A single voice echoed out of the sudden silence.

"Tsubaki! Koten Zanshun! (A/N: I forget. Which one did she not have to say? The name or the incantation? Oh, and like I said, you should've read all the manga available by now, so you should at least know who Tsubaki is.)

Ulquiorra collapsed, his body split clean in two. The fourth espada was no more, along with the sixth.

"In—Inoue…" Ichigo said weakly (but mostly astonished), "Thanks." Ichigo struggled to his feet, and looked down at himself. "Heh heh. Sorry, Inoue. I think I need you to heal me again."

"Ah. Sure, Kurosaki-kun."

"Ah, but that was amazing, Inoue!" Ichigo said, relaxing in the soft, golden glow, "You took out the fourth Espada! Who knew that you were so powerful?"

"Ah ha ha ha… Please, Kurosaki-kun, don't talk so much. Your excitement will only end with you opening your wounds again. Besides, it's not that big of a deal."

"NOT THAT BIG OF A DEAL? Ow… Arg… E-tai…" he groaned, "Inoue, the fourth Espada had power rivaling a taichou! And you say it's not a big deal…" Ichigo started grumbling incoherently to himself as Inoue smiled.

Flashback—Inoue's training

"_Inoue, you're powerful, but you have no resolve for battle."_

_Inoue raised an eyebrow. "Kuchiki-san…?"_

"_Ah, no no no, that's not it," Rukia said, waving her hands around, clearly flustered, "You have resolve, but __not enough__. Yeah, that's it," Rukia said, forcing a smile. But then her face turned serious. "Look," she said as she pointed to the two trees split down the middle, "Compare the tree you split to the one I split. The one I split is a clean cut, while the one you split is clearly in two, but the edges are jagged. Like you were hesitant to even cut down a tree. Inoue, just find what you want to protect and don't hold back, alright?"_

_End_

"No, no, Kurosaki-kun!" Inoue said, shaking her head, "That's not pooh bear, it's p-tan… they look similar, but they're different… You can't win the soccer finals with p-tan… You can't… It's impossible… (A/N: taken from manga chap 44)"

"Ah… Inoue?"

"Haaai?" she yelled, startled.

"What are you talking about?"

"O—Oh!" she stammered, embarrassed, "No—Nothing."

"'Kay…"

"No wait, I remember now! I wanted to tell you that that wasn't my real power. I just got excited when I saw that look on your face when you fell…"

"Hmm? Oh… Okay, I guess. This is good enough, Inoue. Arigato. Could you come with me? I think Rukia would probably need healing."

"Sure. Of course. Hah hah… Kurosaki-kun? What are you doing?"

Ichigo had just picked Inoue up, not bridal style, nor piggyback. Rather, he had just wrapped an arm around her waist and picked her up, Inoue's feet and arms dangling out from Ichigo's side (In my opinion the most casual and least romantic way a guy can pick up a girl). He didn't notice the light blush in Inoue's cheeks, but rather just looked forward, searching for Rukia's reiatsu. When he found it, he finally answered Inoue's question.

"Inoue, I need to get to Rukia as fast as I can. I don't think you would be able to keep up with me. Or Nell, for that matter. Oi, Nell! Hop on my back."

"Thure, Ithigo. You're all better now, right?"

"Yup. No worries, all thanks to Inoue."

"Great!"

"Okay, hold on tight guys, alright?" Ichigo said, excitement building once again, grinning.

Ichigo took off, unable to be seen by anyone in Las Noches, save his nakama, the Espada, and the traitors—but they weren't around to see him. When they finally reached the area where Rukia's reiatsu had been coming from, she was nowhere to be found.

"Shit. Where'd she go?"

"—_Cough—_ I—Ichigo?" a weak voice strained.

"Shit." Ichigo cursed under his breath, finally seeing her buried under some rubble, "Rukia, are you alright?"

"No. What does it look like, you idiot?"

"Inoue! I've found her!" Ichigo shouted, frantically lifting the rubble that covered Rukia.

Rukia shook her head, "No. It's too late. Ichigo, don't worry about me. I just want to tell you something very important—"

"Don't talk! It's straining your body."

"But it's very—"

"Don't talk."

"It's im—"

"Shut up!"

"Why don't you shut up, bastard?" she shouted, finally losing it, "I tell you that me, a dying person has something important to tell you, and all you can say is 'Shut up'?" she panted. The slight outburst already took a lot out of her. "I just want to say that I'm passing on my heart on to you."

"Eh?" Ichigo said, a blank expression on his face.

"Not 'Eh' bastard! You say thank you!"

"Th—Thank you."

"Good." Rukia smiled a pained smile.

"Ru—Rukia? Hey! Don't close your eyes, alright? Look at me!" Ichigo was starting to worry. "Inoue!" Inoue has been running since he started yelling, but she was too far away. She was looking for Rukia on the other side of the large room when he started yelling.

"Rukia!" frantic, he grabbed her hand and started shaking it as he yelled.

"Will you just shut up?" Rukia groaned, opening a single eye.

"Oh… Uh, yeah, I just thought, you know…" he said, a relieved smile on his face, eyebrows knit.

"Whatever. I just want you to know… I'm passing my heart on to you, alright? And never die alone. I was worried that I would have to do just that—die alone. But then you came, Ichigo. So just know, don't ever die alone. Ever. You must always have your nakama nearby so you can pass on your heart to them."

Inoue never reached the pair in time. Rukia was dead.

**A/N: Ha ha. You ever notice how anime always says, "Don't talk" when somebody is dying? It's like "Shut up. I don't want to hear your dying wish." Lol. I mean, sure, they say "It's straining your body" but still! Ya know?**


	2. The Past, The Future

**The Past, The Future**

Ichigo sighed. It had been a long, peaceful 135 years since the arrancar war. He was fifteen at the time, and he had defeated the mastermind capable of tricking the Gotei Thirteen Squads, create hollow beings capable of killing taichous (which, thankfully, they didn't. All of the taichous from his early shinigami years were still alive and well), breaking into heaven and killing the Spirit King. What an extremely _long_, extremely_ peaceful_ 100 years. He wished that something interesting would happen, yet didn't exactly want a horrible massacre on his hands should his wish be fulfilled. He filled out some more paperwork. Life as a taichou was boring, but he wasn't complaining. It was an honor to become the youngest ever recorded taichou, becoming one at the ripe ol' age of sixteen.

_Flashback—Aizen's throne room_

_The room was swarming with shinigami. The stupid Gotei Thirteen finally realized that Inoue wouldn't betray them (they didn't once think 'she wouldn't betray her friends'), and six taichous had come to Las Noches to defeat the arrancar. The rest stayed behind to counter Aizen should he survive and make his way to __Seireitei, the only place you could open the gate to the Spirit King's realm._

_Aizen laughed at the approaching face. Kurosaki Ichigo, the legendary substitute. He smiled his lopsided smile, his sadistic tendencies apparent on his face. Just as Kurosaki appeared before him, he turned to Gin._

"_Too bad that Kuchiki girl had to die, right? Of course, everything the Espada do are under my orders."_

_Gin looked over at Kurosaki, his fox-like grin even wider, if at all possible, "Yup. Too bad, too bad." (or 'tza-nen-da')_

_Ichigo cursed. His eyes had turned white and the silvery reiatsu was swirling around him, the pressure creating a crater._

_Aizen turned to him, laughing. "Kurosaki, if that's the best you can do, I'm afraid that you stand no chance of beating me."_

_Gin suddenly took out a long cloth, and making a circular motion over his head _(A/N: like in the anime, when Gin and Aizen left Unohana and Hitsuguya)_, disappeared with Aizen. Right before they left, Aizen looked into Ichigo's enraged eyes and said "If you honestly believe that you can defeat me, come to Soul Society. I'll just kill you there."_

"_Damn arrogant bastard. I'll kill you." Ichigo narrowed his eyes, "And I'm gonna like doing it."_

"_I think that _you_ are the 'damn arrogant bastard.' You will never survive against my bankai. Your pitiful mind won't even be able to fathom it." Aizen grinned as he left for Seireitei _(A/N: I don't think that that's how it works, but hey! It has some powers that we don't know about? Oh, and the reason Ichigo didn't just charge into the cloth thing was because he didn't know what might happen)

"_FUCK!" Ichigo cursed, turning on his heel. "Mina! Aizen left for Soul Society! We gotta get a gate open, fast!" Ichigo was the temporary general of the shinigami dispatched, since he had been in Las Noches longer than anyone there. He strode towards the nearest shinigami capable of opening a portal, which just so happened to be Ukitake. "Ah, Ukitake-san! Could you please open up a portal for everyone? Aizen just left for Soul Society."_

"_Of course, Ichigo-kun," his eyebrows furrowed, "I just hope that all my subordinates are alright…" _

"That's right,"_ Ichigo thought, _"He didn't know—Rukia died."

_Ichigo grimaced at this remark, not to be unnoticed by the clever thirteenth taichou. But Ukitake decided against saying anything. Aizen was going to Soul Society, and it wasn't the time for amble chatter._

—_In Soul Society—_

_It was in ruin. Or at least most of it. Aizen had wreaked havoc wherever he went, and most of Soul Society was on fire. "Heaven" was now a burning inferno, and the cries of battle were everywhere. The returning shinigami looked on in awe, but didn't get emotional. They were shinigami. _

"_Yosh, mina! Ike!" Ichigo cried, and despite the circumstances, grinned._

"_Yeah!" they shouted in unison, raising their swords into the air. Most of the shinigami dispatched to Las Noches were from eleventh division, nuff said. Even Kenpatchi came along__—he was __one of the six taichous who went to Las Noches._

_Ichigo ordered everyone to fight any hollow they see in Soul Society, seeing as how they don't belong there. Ichigo and his group, along with the taichous, took off in search of the three traitors. They weren't that hard to find—they were at Soukyoku. As Ichigo and Co. dashed up the stairs, Aizen had activated some weird box like structure. It opened up a mini-portal into the real world, and the opposite end of the portal was in Karakura. It was sucking up the souls. It just pulled all of the souls out the bodies, but kept them alive. It needed the souls alive until the very end__—__that way the soul's energy would be preserved for the key. Ichigo's eye's widened. "Shit."_

"_That's right. The creation of the key. Gin, Tousen, put up a barrier around us. I don't want to be bothered. If they do make it in, kill them." Aizen sneered._

_Ichigo couldn't see anything, but he could hear everything—the screams of the souls being ripped from their body, the soul chains creaking and finally breaking off. Ichigo knew what he had to do. He shunpo'ed to Aizen's side just as he finished gathering all the souls. Aizen, lost in the excitement of finally having all of the factors to create the King's Key, didn't notice him until a second before Ichigo's attack hit. Aizen stopped his attack with his bare hand, and turned to Tousen and Gin, fury in his eyes. Gin was fighting Ukitake taicho and Kyouraku taicho, four blades against one. Tousen was battling his previous fuku-taicho, and his friend Komamura taicho _(A/N: the animal guy)_. Not too long after, all of the Captains went bankai and Hisagi had to drop out._

"_Tousen! I will open your eyes with my own hands!!" Komamura roared, his bankai giant balling his fists._

"_My eyes __are__ open. This is the path to justice." Darkness enveloped the two, Tousen's bankai activating._

"_Aizen!" Ichigo roared, "I will not allow you to use the souls of my family and friends for your idiotic 'ambition'. You will die here."_

"_Kurosaki. The fact that you have deluded yourself into believing that you could possibly beat me is astounding."_

_Ichigo growled, "Less talk, more fight." (A/N: I don't really think he'd say that, though.) Ichigo went bankai, as did Aizen. They battled for a while, neither side giving in._

"_Oh? Kurosaki, you've improved. If it was a couple months ago, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be here talking to me anymore."_

"_Che. What did you think I've been doing all this time?"_

"_Oh well. I didn't think I'd stoop so low as to show you this, but I want to end this quickly."_

"…_?"_

_Aizen raised a hand over his right temple with his left hand, and swiped it across his face. A mask materialized._

"_You…You're a Vaizard?!"_

"_How naive, Kurosaki. You think I would just sit idly by, right next to the Hougyoku, and do nothing? How do you expect me to rule the hollows if I remain pure shinigami? The Espada may have become stronger than me with __lots__ of training (A/N: and I mean a __lot__). They may even band together and betray me, and I might not have been able to take on ten Espada at once as a regular shinigami. But as a Vaizard, I will forever remain out of their reach, even if they train for a thousand years," he grinned, "But what surprises me, Kurosaki, is how you know of the Vaizard. (A/N: Aizen probably **does** know, though)"_

"_Che. Your sources may not be so reliable, then." Ichigo smirked as he raised a hand to his temple, and pulling it over his face, materialized a mask. "Actually, I think only Grimmjow has seen my mask, and he probably didn't tell you because he, being the idiot he is, wanted me for himself. But it's really too bad. Your Espada are no more. We all killed them, four through ten. As for one through three, I think they ran away in fear."_

"_Fool. One through three are here in Soul Society now." Aizen grinned as he lowered the neck of his shirt, revealing a '1'. "Gin is two and Tousen is three. The three of us are considered Espada, but we are more commonly known as the Elite. I can't really lower myself to my subordinates level, now can I? The Elite have full jurisdiction over any hollow who values his life. Actually, if the Elite weren't Espada, Ulquiorra would've been one. It's more of a… how do the people of your time call it? Publicity stunt. Gain the trust of the hollows, saying that not only will I help them as a man without fear, I can __promise__ my help because I am a part of the Espada."_

"_Che. Sounds rather stupid to me. The Elite Elite? I thought the Espada were already the elite arranacar."_

_Aizen frowned. "Talk like that, Kurosaki, will earn you the most painful death imaginable."_

"_I could say the same."_

_Ichigo grinned, but you couldn't see it under the mask. He put his fingers together, planning to use a Cero. He hadn't perfected the move yet, seeing as how he barely managed to get his mask to stay on, but it was still pretty powerful. The two evenly matched warriors didn't notice the throng of people watching their battle from afar. The shinigami couldn't see whom they were—the reiatsu was so bad that they couldn't get too close. But it seemed like two hollows were battling each other. Why, nobody knew. Well, except for Ichigo's friends of course._

_The Cero started to form, but Ichigo distracted Aizen from noticing by dancing around him (A/N: not literally—that's just weird), keeping his hand behind his back (a classic move). Aizen got pissed and told Gin and Tousen to end it quickly, while he took care of the orange haired brat. When his head was turned, Ichigo fired off a minor Getsuga Tenshou, knocking the box out of his hands. Ichigo quickly grabbed it, releasing the souls into Soul Society. He stopped forming the Cero as the souls scattered, lead away by strong shinigami able to stand the pressure. In his frantic search for his friends and family, Ichigo didn't notice Aizen calmly walking towards him, a grin under his mask. He quietly retrieved the small box, and activated it right next to Ichigo. Ichigo's reiatsu would be more than enough to create the key._

"_Shit," Ichigo finally realized his carelessness. He was too busy putting the safety of his friends and family ahead of saving heaven. He felt his reiatsu draining__—__he could even feel the pull on his spirit body. He was getting sucked into the box. Of doom!!! (A/N: Sorry. Couldn't help myself XD. Just ignore that last sentence.) He quickly turned around, slashing at Aizen's general direction. He managed to stop the suction of his soul, but the majority of his reiatsu was gone._

_He panted. Shit. That's what he was in. He was in deep shit._

"_I could kill you now," Aizen sneered, "But I just like making insects like you suffer." He swiped at Ichigo's abdomen, creating a large gash across his stomach. Ichigo groaned, clutching his stomach, his "bankai outfit" now thoroughly torn into shreds. The area by his stomach was the last piece. _

_Gin tossed another box to Aizen, who had, like Aizen ordered, finished it quickly. Completely was another matter. The same goes for Tousen__—__Komamura, thoroughly cut up, was still very much alive. Aizen grinned, and put the two boxes together and started chanting._

"_Oh, Gods, may we enter your realm! I beseech thee, we have come peacefully in the most dire of needs, may we possess the King's Key!" (A/N: sorry. Couldn't really think of anything good, except for the irony of 'coming peacefully')_

_The boxes joined, forming a weird, long metallic object. It began to deform and twist, finally turning into a complex, large, gold key. Aizen looked absolutely maniacal right about now, his eyes gleaming, a sadistic smile oh-so-apparent on his face._

"_Excellent." _

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

_Fuck. Ichigo looked down at himself, his body all torn up once again. He was being healed by Inoue, who for some reason looked really sad and scared (A/N: Ichigo really is a dum-dum, huh?). Aizen was in the center of a barrier still atop Soukyoku hill. It was completely void of people except for the traitors. Gin and Tousen chased everybody off, too pressed for time to bother fighting every three people. Rather, Gin just used his shikai to chase anyone bright enough to get the hell off the hill—the only people there who are capable of being a threat to the traitors were injured. The other taichous were on their way to the hill, though. Unohana and her division arrived first to tend to the injured._

_Aizen muttered something under his breath, and a large, glowing hole appeared before him. He grabbed the key and shoved it in, muttering some more. The yellow glow turned red as he stopped saying his incantation. He grinned and motioned to Gin and Tousen, right before he was sucked into the portal he created, with Gin and Tousen hurrying to follow suit. When the three ex-taichous disappeared, so did the portal and barrier._

"_So they have left."_

_Ichigo craned his head from his uncomfortable position on the floor as Inoue healed him. It was the sou-taichou, his closed eyes looking more tired and aged then ever. It was then Ichigo noticed a similar looking key in his hand, the other holding his cane sword. The sou-taichou looked at Ichigo and the remaining taichous._

"_Kurosaki, is your healing almost finished? Or rather, at least far enough for us to ask for your services?"_

"_Um, yeah, sure," Ichigo cast a questioning glance at Inoue, who nodded in agreement._

"_Okay then," he looked back at the other taichous and said, "Any uninjured taichou will go with Kurosaki to the King's Realm. I will follow suit after the injured taichous are healed enough to come back on duty here in Soul Society." He started to reopen the gate that took the traitors to the very place they were not supposed to be._

_As Ichigo stood up, slinging his bankai casually over his shoulder, grinning._

"_This is not a laughing matter, Kurosaki." Byakuya stepped up beside Ichigo._

_Ichigo frowned, "Che, Byakuya, you can't have a stick up your ass forever." In case you haven't noticed, Ichigo became a __whole__ lot more casual with Rukia's older brother, since the only reason he even had to be semi formal with the stiff, unfeeling, noble was 'cause Rukia would've killed him if he wasn't._

"_Ah, Ichigo, I think taichou might have to kill you when this is over." A grinning Renji joined the conversation, excited that he was allowed to fight the final fight with Ikkaku and the rest of the taichous on account of their bankai._

_Ichigo snorted, and grinned his trademark cocky grin. "Not if I could help it."_

"_Come. It's time to go." Byakuya looked at Renji, completely ignoring Ichigo._

"_Yosh!" Renji said, grinning wider._

_And they all stepped into the portal._

"**ICHIGO**!!!!" (End flashback… it's one of those things that you shouldn't have seen coming)

"H—Hai!!!" Ichigo yelped, throwing his pen and everything else on his desk into the air.

"Daydreaming again, huh?"

"Arg. Shut up, Renji. I just got lost in time, alright?" Ichigo scowled, "Paperwork's pretty boring, in case you haven't noticed, _Funny Eyebrows-taichou_," he sneered.

"Eh? I don't think you should be talking, Fifth Division _Strawberry-taichou_."

"Ninth Division _Red Pineapple-taichou_!"

"Strawberry!" Renji shouted, getting in Ichigo's face.

"Pineapple!" Ichigo shouted, pushing his forehead up against Renji's, making a satisfactory _thunk!_

"**WILL YOU TWO FUCKIN' FRUITS SHUT UP?!**"

"EEEEEH?" Renji shouted, turning around. But he stopped short when he saw who he was.

"Toshiro?! What are you doing at the Fifth Division?" Ichigo questioned, bending down (much to Shiro's dismay) to Hitsuguya's level with an eyebrow raised.

He frowned and muttered, "You have a mission to the real world. Many spirits have once again gathered in Karakura, and another has alarmingly high reiatsu for a live human. Many hollows have shown up, even a menos. Although it was just a foot soldier, we figured that you and a team should go down there to perform mass konso and extermination. A team of people of your choice will help under your command."

Ichigo frowned. Ever since he became the latest taichou (Renji and Ichigo were tied, but since the third taichou had been a taichou before, and Renji had been in Soul Society longer than Ichigo, Ichigo was "the latest"), he took Toshiro's place in being "the taichou who's always being sent to the real world". It wasn't like he was complaining, though. He missed the real world, and even after 135 years, he still didn't get over it. Besides, he didn't want to be like some of the people in Soul Society, who didn't have a clue as to what the hell was going on in the real world.

"Sure," Ichigo grinned his trademark cocky grin, "Hell, it might be interesting."

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**A/N: Ahh, that was long! Yay! Incomplete back story, so read the next chapter (Even though it's not that hard to guess what happened)!! Read and review, please! Oh, and did you guys notice how Shiro-chan's the one who's always sent to the real world? Tsk. I feel bad for him. Please, please, PLEASE review. I need to know whether or not I'm going in the right direction or not. Oh, and I kinda doubt that Aizen would ever sink to his subordinates level, but hey! Ulquiorra was four, and we don't see any arrancar that may be higher in power, right? Oh... Oh wait... Yes! Okay, if you pause the anime opening at the right time, after the shot of all the shinigami, and Aizen does his kick ass arm swipe over his face to reveal evil Aizen, and the shot of all the Espada are shown, you see the Espada in order (i guess. It makes sense) and THERE IS NOBODY BEFORE ULQUIORRA!!! Except for Tousen, Gin, and finally Aizen! Hmm. Makes you think, huh?**

**And WOW. I didn't expect to get so many reviews on my first chapter! Thank you all, and a thank you to those who put me on the story alert/favorites!!! I really appreciate it. But! As for those of you who didn't... --puts up fist--**

**lol, jk. It's alright, I guess. I just wish you would review. :) Have a great day! I probably should start updating in the afternoon. XD The first chapter was at 2 something in the morning.**

**Oh, and sorry if my battle scenes suck. I think I can kinda sorta pull it off, it just that I can't think of any decent powers for them to use.**


	3. Good Ol' Karakura

**Good Ol' Karakura**

Ichigo yawned and stretched as he stepped out of the portal. It was strange. Most of his friends had reiatsu and he didn't even notice it. But then again, he sucked at detecting reiatsu back then, so he figured it was to be expected (he still sucked, but he was better). When Keigo, and Tatsuki entered the Shinigami Academy and passed with flying colors, he immediately requested that they be in his division. Ishida, Chad and Inoue are somewhat special members of his division. Being what they were, Ichigo is now officially famous for:

1.) Breaking into Soul Society and winning the battle with roughly twenty days of training

2.) Achieving bankai in three days and mastering it in a month (made last part up. But I know that he didn't master it in the three days, since Ichigo became slower in his fight with Bya-chan)

3.) The only Vaizard in all of Soul Society (they figured they could make an exception

after he saved Soul Society's ass twice)

4.) The youngest taichou in history

5.) The only division with people who _weren't _shinigami… or officially dead, for that

matter (until about that eighty-year mark… but they still look the same! Thank goodness)

6.) Only person in history to have become a shinigami before they died or entered the Academy

7.) Arrancar war hero

8.) Almost (if not the same or more) as much reiatsu as Kenpachi

9.) Fan girl clubs exceeding Byakuya's (inside joke among the taichous)

—ahem— 

Now that that's over with, let's go on with the story, shall we?

Anyways, Ishida remained a Quincy, and Chad and Inoue never bothered to enter the academy since they were about as strong as a fuku-taichou (and it wouldn't be fair to give them some more power). Chad, as his third seat, took care of what would've been the fuku-taichou's paperwork. Ishida, his fourth, helped Chad along with Inoue, his fifth. Tatsuki was seventh (her and her love for fighting), and Keigo was eighth. Even his little sisters, Karin and Yuzu, joined the shinigami. Yuzu, although she wanted to be in her Ichi-nii's division, decided that her powers were better spent at the Fourth Division. Karin was the third seat in the Sixth Division, deciding that it was the most sane one. She didn't want to deal with her brother's crazy friends. The Fifth Division didn't have a fuku-taichou. Nobody in Soul Society knew why, and everybody kept on urging Kurosaki to just move up everyone's seat number. It's especially since Chad was already doing the fuku-taichou's work, and he was as strong as one too (if not stronger).

They all gazed around their hometown. All the buildings remained the same when the souls were sucked out, but the bodies remained. It freaked the police out to no end. The bodies had naught a scratch on them, but they were all about as alive as poor Rover, the late police dog. When the battle was finally over, Ichigo decided to stay in Soul Society and bring Kon along. Ichigo pretty much abandoned his body when the fight was over, finding all of his friends and family (along with everyone else from Karakura) in Soul Society. It wouldn't make much of a difference if there was one more body in Karakura. Kon was put back in his stuffed lion—Soul Society still didn't want any of the mod-souls to be in existence.

Ichigo's team consisted of all his seated members, minus the ninth and tenth, who were unlucky enough to be left with the remainder of the paperwork.

"Nice to be back home, huh?" Ichigo grinned, placing his hands on his hips and looking back towards everyone else. "But," he said, scratching the back of his neck, "it's weird that all these spirits have suddenly gathered, along with the stupid hollow who are about to die."

"Jeez, Ichigo, why are you still so blood thirsty?" Keigo whined, and Tatsuki, scoffing at his lack of backbone, grinned along with Ichigo. It was always fun working with all of her old friends.

"Shut up, Keigo. If I didn't bring you, you would've whined that I didn't bring you. Now that I _did_ bring you, you just whine about the killing of hollows. Da-ku, sometimes I wonder how you manage to be a shinigami if you're afraid to kill a simple hollow," Ichigo said, a look of annoyance on his face.

"Fine! I see how it is! Your friend for over 100 years and this is how you treat me! I don't want to be your friend either! C'mon, everyone, let's—"

"What did taichou tell you? Shut up, Keigo." Tatsuki scoffed, hitting him upside the head with her sheath.

"Ah, Tatsuki, how many times do I have to tell you not to call me taichou?" Ichigo frowned, scratching his head.

"Well, it seemed Keigo forgot who was in charge, so I thought that I should remind him." Ichigo scowled. "Jeez, you have quite the scary face, you know that?" Ichigo scowled some more.

Suddenly the horrible roar of a hollow resonated through the city. Ichigo sighed. "I guess it's time for us to do what we came here for, right?" Ichigo sighed again.

"_Troublesome," _Ichigo thought. When he had been a shinigami for a year, he had become used to purifying the hollows. Now it was just downright boring.

"Alright," Ichigo started lazily, "Who wants to do it?" When he suddenly turned around, grabbing Zangetsu from his back, the cloth unraveling. "Che. I guess it has to be me, then."

"Don't treat me so lightheartedly, koso. I've always wondered what a taichou tasted like." The ugly hollow grinned, waving his tail, his fish-like mask boring down towards Ichigo. "I alone will be the one to have finally eaten a taichou!" the hollow boasted, "You won't even stand a chance! Of course—"

He mask started to disperse. Ishida yawned. "Sorry. He was talking too long. It got boring." Ishida had been issued a special bow by the Twelve Division—rather than his regular bow, it sent the hollows to Soul Society.

"Tsk. Ishida, you took my hollow."

"This isn't the time to joke, Kurosaki. We have a mission."

"Hai, hai. Not like you should be talking, Ishida. You've been known to bring extra capes. Alright, everyone, split up. If anything happens, just increase your reiatsu higher than needed to fight a regular hollow and I'll come."

Everyone shunpo'ed out, scattering around the city. Only Ichigo remained, stretching and yawning.

"Kurosaki!" It was then Ichigo noticed Ishida still there.

"Eh?"

"The cape is of utmost importance to a Quincy, right next to the bow. Never forget that, shinigami."

Ichigo sweat dropped. Yeah, rare funny moment for Ishida. Too bad Ishida doesn't realize it.

Ichigo just took off, not wanting to deal with the irate Quincy. He ran over the rooftops, running over the property that used to be his house, and looked back and grinned. He found a group of spirits huddled over in the alleyway by his previous home, talking. They looked a lot like thugs, probably mass killed in a gang fight or something. Ichigo walked over, listening in on their conversation.

"Yeah, but the other gang has control over out territory now…"

"Who cares? Just take it back from them, dumb ass!" this one was obviously the obnoxious leader. "We all have families to feed, right? Let's just go and take it from them!"

"Ano…" Ichigo started.

"We can't let down! We must prevail! For our families!" Great. This one was starting a speech.

"Oi…"

"We are the toughest gang in all of—"

"OOOIII!!" Ichigo screamed, getting annoyed.

"Eh? Who are you to intrude on this elite gang's meeting?!"

"Do you even know you're dead?" asked Ichigo, sweat dropping.

"Eh?! What the hell are you talking about? Huh? I bet you're just from the other gang, and coming dressed like that, what are you thinking? It looks like you've come from the Edo era! Get with the times, brat! Get him!"

Ichigo sighed, and shunpo'ed around everyone, konsoing everyone as he went. Stupid ghosts. He hated the ones who didn't even know they were dead—it always ended up with them trying to attack him.

Ichigo ran off, feeling sudden spike of Tatsuki's and Inoue's reiatsu. Ichigo smiled. It figured that those two would be working together. Another, much stronger reiatsu was with them. For a hollow, it was too strong—it was probably a menos. Ichigo frowned and ran faster. Inoue and Tatsuki should be fine on their own, but that wasn't in terms of vanquishing the hollow. It's more of a "they should survive long enough" than a "they'll kill it". When he reached them, he saw Inoue with her shield out, and Tatsuki dodging the blows as she flitted around Inoue and the menos. She was trying to get a clean attack to the head, but a Cero was forming, so she didn't want to risk it.

"Tatsuki! Inoue! You guys alright?"

"Y—Yeah. We sustained injuries, but nothing to worry about, taichou!" Tatsuki grinned as she said this.

"How many times do I have to fucking tell you?! Ya know, I think you just get a kick out of annoying me."

"Whatever. Just deal with the hollow."

"Don't tell me what to do, I'm the taichou!"

"Jeez. There's no pleasing you, is there?"

Ichigo groaned and took care of the hollow, barely breaking a sweat. All he did was jump up and defeat it like a normal hollow—he was taichou after all.

After everyone took care of the spirits and most of the hollows, Ichigo received a hell butterfly that said they should remain in the living world a little longer, since more hollows and more spirits may show up.

Ichigo sighed and ordered everyone to go ahead and take a break. He was just going to shunpo around and take care of the small fries he might come by.

"Yosh, mina, if you sense a hollow nearby, just leave it to Chado," Ichigo nodded to Chad. "Since you are the third seat, I figured that you probably should take care of it. Ishida and Chad can both take care of a menos single-handedly, and Inoue had enough defensive power to ward off ten Ceros, so Ichigo didn't really worry about the safety of his friends. He knew they were in the safe hands of the veterans.

"Well, I'm off," He shunpo'ed out into the now darkening sky. Ichigo did two rounds around the city, before calling his friends and telling them to find a place to stay for the night. After the call, Ichigo settled for sitting on a telephone pole and watching the city. Ichigo sighed, and even after promising himself not to brood over this, thought about Rukia. He still blamed himself for her death, so many factors that he believed he could change—if he just fought Grimmjow a little faster, if he was better at detecting reiatsu and found her faster. He shook his head. _"You had 135 years to get over this!" _he scolded himself, _"And you're a shinigami, to top it off."_

"Fuck," Ichigo cursed, "Another hollow." Ichigo sighed, not wanting to leave his telephone pole (A/N: I dunno why. Aren't those things uncomfortable?). He leaped off, calling his friends to tell them that he's going to take care of it. Ichigo laughed to himself. It was odd. When he finally found out that his dad was a shinigami in Soul Society, he really freaked out. And now that he could go all out on his dad since he was once a taichou, Kurosaki Isshin came back from being chased around all of Soul Society, Seireitei and Rukongai alike, thoroughly beaten up. After that, Isshin decided that he was better off in the real world, in a non-aging gigai like Urahara's. After about a decade, worried that his customers would notice that he wasn't aging, he sold the clinic to a trusted friend and moved, to come back once everyone who knew him died. Ichigo cocked his head. Actually, it's been more than enough time for everyone else to forget about his father. He may be coming back soon.

Ichigo ran off in the direction of his previous house, smirking at the coincidence. There was a hollow in the middle of the street, it had a lizard head with a long, spiked tail. Ichigo's eyebrow rose. Who knew the hollows could look any uglier? The trademark mask and hole were there, along with the hollow's anguished cries. Ichigo frowned, trying to tamper down his rebellious reiatsu even more. He had learned the great and extremely difficult art of concealing reiatsu during the war, but he still hasn't quite gotten the hang of it. Ichigo looked over. The hollow seemed oblivious to his existence, but he didn't know whether that was a good or bad thing. If it knew a shinigami was near, it'd forget about the humans and come after him. But it didn't know where Ichigo was, so he could sneak up on it. Ichigo crouched on the rooftop, planning to spring onto it's head at the right moment, when the hollow suddenly barged into the clinic. Ichigo's eyes widened, regretting not attacking sooner. He swore, knowing how injured some of the people in a clinic can get. They might not survive a hollow attack if he didn't act soon. Ichigo darted down, letting some of his reiatsu leak out as bait. The hollow paused, sniffing the air, when he suddenly reared down and attacked. Ichigo cursed, and shunpo'ed down in front of the hollow, protecting whoever was behind him. Using his hilt wrap, he swung Zangetsu up towards the head of the hollow, right before the hollow went back to Hueco Mundo.

"Damn. I missed," Ichigo scowled and pulled up Zangetsu up from the hole in the floor he made when he missed the cowardly hollow. After seeing his hollow side use this move several times before he gained control, Ichigo decided it would be best to learn this move, it being both fast, unexpected and long-distance. He also wanted to train until his Getsuga Tenshou made his hollow's Tenshou look like confetti, since when he fought the hollow for control, the hollow's Getsuga Tenshou completely overpowered Ichigo. His eyebrows furrowed at the thought.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Ichigo jumped at the voice, and turned around, scowling. He did a double take when he saw that it was a human, female. But what surprised him the most was not that she was a human with high spirit power. Hell, he and all of his friends were, so he had gotten used to the idea. No, it was _who_ the girl was. Ichigo gaped at her, making her look at him funny.

"Rukia?"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**A/N: Excellent! Who here thinks I'm the most evil person in the world right now? Anyone? Anyone? Yess! Still incomplete back-story, so keep on reading! I plan to talk about Ichigo's whole 150 years, one day at a time! So, when Ichigo was a tiny little baby, on the day he was born… Jk. Duh. There is no way in HELL that I'm gonna write about Ichigo's 150 years. But you will learn what happened in the gap between Rukia's death and now. Yee! Cliffie! Huh. I never written one of these before (a cliffie). Reviews, and maybe I'll update soon! —**_**evil laughter**_**—**** or maybe not!! I'll wait a year before I update!! —**_**more evil laughter**_**— Never! Nah, I won't do that. I don't think I can, anyways. I really want to update already! So review, people! Or at least show me that the people reading this are alive and not freak zombies. XD**

**Oh, and some people have been telling me about the incorrect info about the opening. Sorry. I didn't bother to look any further when I found the scene, so yeah. Also, expect the next couple of chapters to be delayed. I'm going on vacation in a week, which will end the day before school starts. And I haven't done any summer work. So, I have to read To Kill a Mockingbird, and write an essay on that and Of Mice and Men. sigh All in a week. Then, a two week vacation. So, sorry about that. Also, when school starts, the updates will probably be slower too, but not if I can help it.**

**Oh, and for those of you who were hoping Karin would be in his team, sorry. I originally put her in there, but she ended up not talking. But maybe I'll transfer her later! Maybe.**

**Good day, people!**


	4. Back From the Living

**Back From the Living**

Ichigo's jaw dropped. "Rukia?"

"Huh?"

"Why… How… WHAT?!" Ichigo screamed, pointing a finger at Rukia, completely losing it.

"What the fuck are you talking about, you freak? I mean, seriously! Carrying around a sword… A kimono like that… It looks like you're from the olden times! Besides, what the hell was that freakish monster that attacked my family?"

"But… But Rukia—"

"Stop calling me that, you orange haired freak! What, are you in a gang or something? Cosplay? My name is Ronin. Kurosaki Ronin."

"Kurosaki?!?! Where do you live?" Ichigo asked turning red at the ridiculousness of a girl who looks exactly like Rukia, and sounds like her, even. He looked her up and down. The same annoying bang in the face (Rukia thought it was annoying), the same hair color. Even Rukia's eyes, which were a pretty rare purple, were present in this little girl. _"Even her height…" _thought Ichigo as he sniggered.

WHAM! Ichigo groaned. _"Hits like her too," _he thought, scowling.

"What the hell are you laughing about?! You weren't even paying attention to me, huh? You're the one who asked where I live, and when I show you, you're spacing out somewhere! There! I live in the building that's obviously wreaked, stupid! I told you my family was attacked, right?"

Ichigo looked over his shoulder. Kurosaki Clinic. Ichigo smirked, glad that old building survived all these years.

WHAM! "Why the hell do you keep on laughing? Get in there and check on my family, dumbass. You obviously are used to killing those monsters. You should be able to heal, too, right? My father should be fine, but he's an idiot, so I'm not really sure he was ever okay to begin with. And the patients…" She put her hand on her chin thoughtfully, "The monster didn't get too close to the ward, so I think we're fine."

"First of all, _dumbass_, those monsters are called hollows. You can see ghosts, right? Those are fallen souls, nothing but a mass of instinct and bloodlust. And I think I should take a look at your family anyways. Hang on…" Ichigo pulled out his cell phone, and dialed Inoue's number.

"Moshi moshi? Inoue, it's me. I want you to come by Kurosaki Clinic. Um," Ichigo cast an uncomfortable glance over his shoulder, "The family that lives here now was attacked. I don't know for sure if they are severely injured or not, but it wouldn't hurt to check. Thanks. Bye."

"Stupid genes." Ichigo muttered to himself. He sighed inwardly. He figured that the words 'Kurosaki' and 'high reiatsu' had gone hand in hand a lot longer than he already suspected.

"Genes?" Ronin cast a questioning glance to Ichigo, "By the way, what's your name?"

Ichigo sighed. He knew it would have to come to this sooner or later, so he just grit his teeth and said, "Fifth Division taichou of the Gotei 13 Protection Squads, KurosakiIchigo." He said the first half of his name extremely fast, so it sounded like 'KiIchigo'

"Um… Ichigo?" she hazarded a guess. What he said didn't really sound like a name, so she figured it was better than going 'Hey you'.

She started laughing, and Ichigo looked at her, confused. "Strawberry?! Ha ha ha ha ha!!!!"

"H—Hey!" Ichigo shouted, indignant, his face and ears red, "It means number one protector, number one protector! Besides, what about 'Ronin'? Isn't that a boy's name? Huh? Huh?"

She immediately stopped laughing and frowned. She hit him on his head once again, "Baka! It's not my fault what I was named! Besides, 'samurai without a master' sounds a whole lot cooler than 'strawberry'!" She 'humph'ed and turned her head. "You can go ahead and call me Rini."

Ichigo scowled. "'Number one protector' sounds a whole lot cooler than 'little rabbit', stupid!"

"Ano…" Inoue looked at Ichigo curiously, having just arrived, "What are you doing, Kurosaki-kun?" Ichigo mentally ran headfirst into a brick wall. Rini looked horrified, and when Inoue turned to her, Rini's expression just turned from gold to priceless.

"Rukia!" Inoue shouted, disbelief etched into every fiber of her being, "Kurosaki-kun… how can this be…?"

Ichigo sighed, his usual scowl replaced with a look regret. "No, Inoue this isn't—"

"Please don't call me 'Rukia'. I live over there," She curtsied, pointing at the ruined building. She flashed her eyes at Ichigo, making him gulp and gag at the same time. Even their acting?! Unbelievable! Then she turned to Ichigo, who stiffened up in her glare. "And did she call you Kurosaki-kun? Who are you?"

"Never mind that!" Ichigo replied hastily, "Anyways, Inoue, this is Kurosaki Ronin, who prefers to be called 'Rini'."

"Kurosaki…? What's the meaning of this, Kuro—?"

"Ah, Inoue, shouldn't you go inside to check on everyone?" Ichigo shouted, waving his arms. Rini looked at him funny. "Rini said that everyone should be fine, but it couldn't hurt to make sure." Ichigo didn't want her to know his name, should she be what he thinks she is. Inoue jogged in, worry evident on her face. She still wasn't much of a fighter, but she could if she wanted to. She always _was_ more of a healer.

"Kuro—Erm, uh, Taichou!! I think you should see this," Inoue's voice came wafting out of the clinic, confusion clearly evident in her voice.

Ichigo sighed, clearly relived that she didn't call him by his name. He walked in. And started to gag on his spit. There lay a man with a beard, obviously faking to be out cold. He started coughing, wiping his mouth on the sleeve of his uniform.

Inoue nodded. "Exactly. What's your father doing here, Kurosaki-kun?"

And, because all characters in stories have great timing some time or another, Rini walked in.

She frowned. "Ichigo? Your father? And… Kurosaki… your name… What does all this mean?"

Ichigo sighed. "I guess I should reintroduce myself, since you already know," he jabbed a stiff thumb towards his chest, "Kurosaki Ichigo, Fifth Division taichou of the Gotei Thirteen."

"Just what _is _this 'Gotei Thirteen'? You keep on talking about it."

Ichigo, getting annoyed by stupid prying humans who would end up forgetting everything later anyways, decided to humor her, just to shut her up.

"I'm dead, she's dead," Ichigo growled, pointing to each person in turn, "And any person you see with a chain on their chest is dead too, along with that monster that attacked you."

Her mouth dropped. This went unnoticed as Ichigo continued, "…Anybody you see with a black kimono like Inoue's with a sword at their side are probably shinigami, or some weird human. Shinigami exist to kill those monsters, called hollows, and send souls to the other side before they become depressed and shit and become hollows by the deterioration of their chain. This white coat represents that I am a taichou. Inoue there is one of my subordinates, but she's more of a friend."

"Kurosaki-kun! You shouldn't have said so much!" Inoue said, looking worried.

Ichigo responded by sticking something that looked like a Pez dispenser with a duck head in Rini's face, and with a _pop!_, a cloud of white smoke appeared. Rini stumbled back, dazed. She looked around, confused.

"Erm, strawberry? What happened?" Rini looked around, her eyes unfocused.

"Kurosaki-kun?" Inoue whispered, "What did you do? Memory replacement or manipulation?"

"Manipulation," he hissed back, "It'd be bad if she forgot everything and had some random memory instead. She just forgot my name and everything I said about shinigami, as well as the bit about my dad."

Rini looked up from her spot on the floor, looking at the two orange haired people, who seemed like they were having a heated discussion.

"Oi! Shinigami!" Rini shouted, standing up. She smacked Ichigo upside his head, once again. "Ichigo, Inoue, is my family alright? I think they should be…"

They stared at her.

"Kurosaki-kun, I thought you erased her memory," Inoue said, casting a worried look towards Rini.

"Fuck. I did. She shouldn't know anything about shinigami right now…" Then Ichigo groaned. "Fucking high reiatsu," he muttered to himself. He forgot that Inoue and Tatsuki ended up remembering what happened that one night with Inoue's brother, at her apartment. Then it dawned on Ichigo, and he pulled out his phone as Inoue tended to the disgruntled Rini.

"Ishida? Chad? Erm, just get everyone out here. Kurosaki Clinic, the family that was attacked… Uh, I think the girl is the one with the high reiatsu."

"Sure Kurosaki. Did Soul Society say when we could go back yet?" Ishida drawled, his voice indifferent as usual.

"Ugh. The pricks up there just said 'stay until further notice'. Vague bastards."

Ishida sighed. "Whatever. We'll be there in a minute."

"Alright. Oh, and the human's name is Rini, not Rukia."

"Not Rukia? What do you mean?"

"You'll see. Bye."

Minutes after, Ishida, Chad, Tatsuki, and Keigo suddenly materialized (or so it seemed to Rini, who couldn't follow their movements). Rini screamed and jumped back from her sitting position, or tried to. All she managed to do was scoot backwards a few inches.

Ichigo visibly sighed, and pointed to each one in turn as he introduced them.

"Chado, Ishida, Tatsuki, and," Ichigo shuddered, "the guy you don't want to speak to, the pedophile, Keigo."

"How are you on this fine day, Rini?" Keigo shouted, damaging the poor girl's ear. Everyone else just stared at her.

Ishida recovered first. "Kurosaki, what is the meaning of this?"

Ichigo groaned. "I wish I knew. But apparently," he whispered/hissed, "She's a human, Kurosaki Rini. Doesn't know anything about Soul Society, besides the stuff I told her."

"You told her?! You truly _are_ an idiot. Just erase her memory."

"Tried."

"'Tried'? What do mean, 'Tried'?!"

"Her reiatsu. She's the special human."

"Shit. Can't believe you're my taichou. You're the stupidest person I know, right next to Kenpachi and Yachiru, when it comes to reiatsu. How could you not feel it?"

Ichigo sighed, not wanting to pursue the topic of how horrible his recognizing skills were. "Whatever. Also," he said, now speaking to the whole group, "I want all of you come with me, except Rini. Inoue, you should keep her company. She knew you the longest so far, besides me. Everyone else, follow me," Ichigo ordered, striding into his old house with everyone else in tow. Except for Keigo. He was hoping to perv on two innocent girls.

"Sashi-buli (long time, no see), Otou-san," Ichigo said, a maniacal grin on his face.

"Ichigo?" Tatsuki said, "Your father? What's he doing here?"

"Yes, Kurosaki, what is the meaning of this?" Ishida said, a look of surprise on his face.

"Hmm… odd," Chad muttered.

"I dunno. Ask him," Ichigo sighed, kicking his father in the ribs.

"Oooooooow, Ichigo, is that anyway to treat a father who's been unconscious?" he whined.

"Che. Whatever," Ichigo said, a dangerous gleam in his eyes, "Why are you here? And who is that girl?"

"Huh?" Isshin said, an innocent look on his face, "What girl?"

"Don't play dumb with me, you dumbass. She claims to be your daughter. Where's the mom?" he growled, hiding his slight anger.

Isshin sat up, suddenly serious. "Ichigo, you should know by now that I can't replace your mom. I adopted her. Haven't you noticed her striking resemblance to Rukia? And besides," Isshin said, starting to whine again, "Why don't you give your darling father a hug!?!?!? I finally come back to Karakura after all these years, and all you can say is 'Why are you here'?"

"Shut up," Ichigo said, planting a foot into his face. "Figured it took someone like you to name a girl 'Ronin'."

"Huh?" Isshin said, a confused look on his face. "She was already named that. How else would I have known to adopt her if she wasn't already partly grown up?"

"Figured an idiot like you wouldn't notice that, Kurosaki."

"Shut up, Ishida."

"Hmm," Chad grunted, too used to their fighting to care anymore.

"You idiots argue too much," Tatsuki scoffed.

"Well, then, otou-san, why didn't you save her?" Ichigo said, a confused look on his face.

Isshin sighed, and replied, "It attacked as I was coming home. She would've seen me as a shinigami, and I felt your reiatsu nearby, so I decided to leave it to you."

"Lazy ass," Ichigo snarled, making to kick him again, but Chad intervened.

"Ichigo. We must go to Urahara Shouten. Our gigais."

"Huh? Oh yeah. Let's go everyone. You guys booked a hotel, right?"

"Ah… They said they were booked…" Tatsuki said, a frown on her face.

Ichigo sighed, "Shit."

"Ooooh, my son! You can come and live with daddy again! I'm so proud! And happy!"

Ichigo scowled, and surprisingly, agreed. "Damn it. I don't think we have any choice in the matter. I guess we'll be staying with my dad," Ichigo said, looking extremely put out.

"Tatsuki, go outside and tell Inoue and Rini the _wonderful_ news. I have something to take care of with my _dear_ father."

Tatsuki walked out, and soon after, wails of despair could be heard.

Ishida looked at Isshin. "Why would having your grown son live with you again make you proud?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 

**A/N: Well everyone, I meant to update yesterday, cuz my super secret schedule was to update on the days with a 5 or 0 at the end, since every 5 days would be confusing when the month was over. This is probably the last chapter for about two weeks, so, yeah, sorry. And for everyone who reviewed (40+, 17 in the last chapter, WOW.) I would like to extend my appreciation—it's all of you who kept me going. And yeah, I might make more cliffies, especially since the last one was a great hit in terms of review. If you want closure, review more, and I won't do those super evil cliffhangers. Lol, nah, I won't do them unless necessary, since it sucks to wait. But that shouldn't keep you from reviewing, so 'Go'! I was really rushing, hoping to post it before 12, but, **_**—sigh— **_**,it was not to be. And for any unsigned reviewers out there, thanks for reviewing. I make it a point to respond to every review I get, but if I missed someone… oops, sorry. Also, I threw together a soundtrack for this fic, but it's just more of a 'songs I listen to while writing' thing. If you're interested, **

**see ****here: http:// rapidshare. com/ files/ 45112013/ Bleacher27 (underscore)s(underscore)Soundtrack**

**Just remove the spaces and replace (underscore) with an underscore (duh). Annoying, but it works.**


	5. Home Stupid Fucking Home

**Home, Stupid Fucking Home**

**Or Home, Sweet Home. Your Choice**

"What do you want?" Rini frowned.

Ichigo wordlessly dragged a futon into the room, adjusted it on the floor, and with a scowl, flopped onto it.

Rini cursed, and jumped from her bed onto his crotch. Ichigo screamed like a girl (hey, she _jumped_). She grinned. "I've been wanting to do that for a long time. Now answer me: What the hell are you doing in my room?"

"My stupid room first…" Ichigo muttered into his pillow, his body in a fetal position.

"Huh?" Rini asked, an eyebrow risen.

"Ah… No, nothing," Ichigo replied hastily.

Flashback—about an hour ago "Ichigo, our gigais. Urahara Shouten," Chad said. "Huh?" Ichigo paused, mid kick, "Oh yeah, huh." He turned to his father, "You got lucky this time. We'll all be back in about fifteen minutes to help set up for tonight." 

_He turned to everyone else. "C'mon," he said as he strode out of the house, "let's go."_

_What he saw outside didn't really make him any happier after the decision to stay with his dad. Keigo was in Inoue's and Rini's faces, shouting about how manly he was. Ishida twitched._

"_Keigo, get away from them!" Ichigo snarled, punching him in the face._

"_Owd, Idigo, id that any way to tweat a fwend?" Keigo whined, nursing his bleeding nose._

"_Whatever. Yosh mina, we need to get our gigais."_

_And everyone disappeared, or so it seemed to Rini. She looked on in awe at the spot they used to be. Then, suddenly, a large shadow was cast over her. She turned around slowly, fearing the worst._

"_Oh, my wonderful, wonderful daughter! Did you miss daddy? Are you alright?"_

_Rini sighed and ignored her father, walking into the clinic. Isshin followed. Rini sat down at the kitchen table, and faced her father._

"_Otou-san, I want to know everything. Just who are they? You know, Ichigo and his friends. You seem to know them, and I want to know what happened._

_Isshin stared uncomfortably at her. He sighed, his mind working furiously. "Sure."_

—_Urahara Shouten—_

"_My my, Ichigo, what brings you here?" Urahara said, his trademark fan out and in front of his face._

"_Cut the crap. I'm sure you've noticed all the shit that's been going on. Also, from what I've heard, you're the one who ended up defeating the first menos," Ichigo growled, "So just give us the gigais already."_

"_What? He isn't allowed to catch up with an old friend?" A black cat walked in._

_Ichigo pointed at her, red faced. "If you transform here, I swear to kami…"_

"_Et-tou. Too late." The now naked lady smiled._

_Keigo fainted, and Ichigo became redder than his name._

"_Hi, Yoruichi!" Inoue shouted, waving her hand._

"_Hello, everyone," she said, pulling a shirt over her head._

"_Jeez, Ichigo, you're now 150, and you're still like this?" Yoruichi smirked. "You can look now, _little boy_."_

"_Shu—Shut up. I'll talk to you guys later. Right now, we have to hurry back home. I'm supposed to help with the set up for tonight. So, just give us our fucking gigais," Ichigo hissed, taking a safety peek between his fingers before prying his hands away from his face._

_Urahara sighed and shoved six bodies towards them. "Take good care of those! And here," Urahara added, handing them Soul Candy dispensers, "you'll need these."_

_Ichigo handed his back. "I've got my own," he said, shaking a Chappy one, "It has Kon in it. Stupid lion was too noisy, so I stuck him in here instead."_

_The Chappy dispenser used to be Rukia's._

_Ichigo sighed, and motioned everyone to follow, pocketing the Soul Candy. "I'll come back tomorrow or something!" he called back over his shoulder. Ishida, Chad, and Inoue left calling out that they would join Ichigo next time. Tatsuki decided not to say anything since she didn't know them that well, and just concentrated on dragging Keigo out of the shop._

—_Back at Home—_

_Rini stared at her father, open-mouthed. "So that's how it is?" she asked, amazed. Isshin only told her about Soul Society and the hollows, saying he knew of this because of his high reiatsu as a child. He conveniently left out the part of her Ichigo and the twins being shinigami, him being a shinigami, and her boss being one, too. Rini kept on asking questions about Ichigo, since he called _her_ "father" 'otou-san', but Isshin answered with a hug and shouts of 'Oh, my beautiful, beautiful daughter, give daddy a hug!' She consequently forgot all about her question trying to ward off her crazy father._

_Ichigo slammed open the door, shouting, "I'm home!"_

_Rini glared at him, thinking, _"When did this become _his_ home? He says it so easily…"

_Ichigo and Co. walked in with grocery bags, and Ichigo busied himself with the food. In the 135 years he had in Seireitei, Yuzu finally managed to get him to learn how to cook. In the background, you could see everyone else dragging Inoue away from the kitchen. Rini walked up to him, frowning._

"_Where'd your PJs go?"_

_Ichigo scowled, and said, "Shinigami uniform, dumbass. I'm in a gigai right now, so of course I wouldn't be dressed like that."_

"_Gigai?" she asked, tilting her head to the side._

"_Fake body," Ichigo sighed._

"_You know how to cook?" Ichigo asked as she started to cut the tomatoes._

"_Mmm. I guess you could call it that. Ne, Ichigo, who was Rukia?"_

_Ichigo frowned, then proceeded to dump the cut beef into a pot. "A good friend."_

_Rini looked at him and raised her eyebrows, offering him the chance to go on, but he didn't. His eyebrows were furrowed more than usual, and he just stood there silently for a while, before Rini started to wave her hand in front of his face. He started up, looking around, then suddenly took the tomatoes she was cutting and dumped them into the pot with the beef._

_He looked at her, and his eyebrows loosened up a bit. He sighed and said, "You can go ahead and take a break. I'll take care of things here," and popped a tomato slice into his mouth._

_She smiled. "Nah. Cooking is the only thing that keeps me away from my psycho dad… and probably from that guy, Keigo."_

_Ichigo chucked. "Yeah, probably."_

"_So, this Rukia, was she your lover?"_

_Ichigo choked on the tomato and started to turn red. He grabbed his throat and turned away from her, now slightly purple. Rini's eyes widened, and she started to thump his back, before finally wrapping her arms around his midriff and performing the Heimlich. Isshin walked in, took one look and walked out, grinning._

_Ichigo coughed, and the tomato came flying out. Ichigo gasped, and clutched his chest, bent over by the counter. Rini looked on in concern, and when he finally stood up, he still looked a little green around the gills._

"_You__. You can go ahead and cook the rest of the food. I have to talk to your dad. And stop asking questions," he growled._

"_Fine. I see how it is," she said coolly, "I go and save your life and this is how you thank me?"_

"_Hai, hai," Ichigo sighed, "Arigato gon-zai-māz, for saving my 'life'," and did a short jerk which Rini took for a bow._

_As Ichigo walked out, Rini muttered, "Bitch."_

"_That you are," Ichigo replied with a smirk._

_Ichigo walked out and found his dad outside on the front porch, smoking. Ichigo took it from his hand and stamped it out. "You're not in front of mom, so stop smoking. It's bad for your health," he said flatly._

"_Oh, my son! You do care!"_

"_Shut up, you freak," Ichigo snarled, planting a foot in his face, "I came to talk to you. What did you tell Rini? Also, what are your thoughts about her? Why does she look like Rukia?"_

_Isshin sighed, and sat down on the front steps. The sun started to set, casting a pinkish, orange glow all around them. He patted the space next to him, and Ichigo begrudgingly complied. "I've told Rini about the shinigami, and from what I've heard, you already did that. I've also told her about the hollow, but left out the different classes. My excuse for knowing all this was that a shinigami explained it to me when I was child because of my high reiatsu. She kept on asking about you, but I just avoided the topic. I didn't tell her that you're my son, or that her boss and I are shinigami. Did you know that she works for Urahara Shouten? Also, she isn't legally my daughter. I found her in the alleyway of some building, and she said she didn't have a last name, so gave her ours and took her in," Isshin said, now getting glint in his eyes, "So since she isn't your sister, adopted or otherwise, I approve! Her last name is just something to tell the schools."_

"_Wh—What? Whaddya mean?" Ichigo asked, raising an eyebrow._

"_I approve of your relationship, of course!" Isshin said, and slyly added, "She's obviously the reincarnation of Rukia. And your feelings for that girl was obviously lo—"_

_Ichigo punched his face, his own beet red, "Another word, old man, and I swear to kami…"_

XXXXXXXXXXXXX 

After dinner, Ichigo walked into his old room, where the rest of his team was. He sat down plopped down on the floor, and looked around.

"_So, what do you think, everyone? About this human?"_

"_She looks a lot like Rukia…" Keigo said, clasping his hands together, little hearts appearing in his eyes._

"_No shit, dumbass," Tatsuki said, and being the closest to him, took the liberty of hitting him for Ichigo._

_Ishida sighed, and asked, "Kurosaki, did you ask your dad about her yet?"_

"_Yeah. He didn't say much: he found her in an alleyway and took her in, giving her our last name. She isn't even legally related to us, she just didn't have a last name when he found her. He also said that she's probably Rukia's reincarnation."_

"_Well," Chad said, "remember our orders."_

"_Right," Inoue mused, "Mass konso and extermination. Find the human. But I wonder why all these spirits have gathered?_

_Ichigo shook his head, "Nope. Ishida, what are the new orders? I forgot."_

"_Jeez, Kurosaki, if I wasn't there, we wouldn't know them. New orders: Continue to stay in Karakura until further notice. Continue to take care of the souls and hollows. There are new orders on the human, which are to track down and observe. The human appears to have the reiatsu of a seated shinigami, and may become a threat. If he/she does, eliminate the threat._

_Just then, Rini barged into the room, looking annoyed. "What the hell are you guys doing here?"_

_Ichigo looked at her lazily, "What, you forgot already? Remember?" Ichigo pointed to his chest, "Me shinigami. Protect you from baaaaad spirit." He wiggled his fingers._

"_Shut up, dumbass," she snarled, kicking him in the head. "I mean," she said, turning away from the orange-haired shinigami nursing his head, and curtsied, "Why are you guys in my room? Not to be rude or anything. I don't mind." She turned to Ichigo. "You, on the other hand, get the hell out of my room!"_

_Tatsuki looked from Rini to Ichigo, and then turned her look to the others. They all burst out laughing._

"_Right," Tatsuki chortled, "since our _taichou_ is getting kicked out, I think we should follow." She grabbed the scruff of his shirt and dragged Ichigo out, scowling first at Keigo, who was ogling Inoue. Chad and Ishida followed them out, with Ishida muttering about how fate managed to kick Ichigo out of his own room. Ishida shook his head, joining Tatsuki in her Keigo-scowling, then just punched him._

"_Sorry, Keigo, my hand slipped."_

_They all trooped out to Yuzu and Karin's old room, and just as soon as they had gotten settled down, Isshin barges in and shouts, "Bed time! Now, we must decide the sleeping arrangements!" Crap. There's the old gleam in the eyes._

_End_

Ichigo sighed. "I don't wanna be here either. It's… _your_ stupid dad." Ichigo chose his words carefully. "He decided on his own that, although it would make more sense to have a girl with you, there's only room for one person, which would leave one girl alone with a bunch of guys. He figured that we're all as much of a pervert as he is, so he left two girls with three guys, and me with you." Ichigo silently cursed his father. He knew he set this up on purpose.

"Now if you don't mind, I'm going to sleep," Ichigo sighed.

"Wh—What do you mean? Of course I mind!" she sputtered, "Having some random guy sleep in my room? What the hell is my dad thinking?" She turned around, only to find Ichigo already asleep. She sighed, and muttered, "Jeez, I knew my dad was stupid, but I didn't think he was absolutely crazy." She shook her head as she pulled a blanket off her bed and tossed it on Ichigo, and climbed into bed herself.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 

**Intermission. Yeah. Sorry.**

"**Yosh!! This is Kon-sama, here today. So feel lucky! Anyways, you people better read this because the author is writing a double issue today, so be nice and at least read the intermission. So, why are you doing this, Bleacher27?"**

"**Uh, hi! –waves– So, yeah. This is going to be a day late, but I wanted to leave you guys with something before I go on vacation. I don't think I'd even have time to hand write this, so I'm hoping to hit 4000+ words or so, instead of the usual 2000+. So be happy! Anyways, I guess you can consider the second half of this as an early chapter. And really, I can assure you that this is the last chapter for half a month (I know I've been saying this for the past chapter or so). And don't complain about this being in the middle of a chapter, cuz this would've been where I would have ended the chapter. And–"**

"'**Kay, whatever. Now, how about the latest episode with me in it? I had to go into a stupid dog plushie, and fight a hollow when I'm all fluffy! Where's nee-san?! Why didn't she saaaaaaaaaave me!? Why? Wh– ooomhp (or squeak)!"**

"**Shut up, Kon."**

"**Oh, hey. Oh my God, it's Ichigo!"**

"**Uh, yeah… Hi?"**

"**Oh my God oh my God oh my God –glomp–"**

"**Hey… Hey, gerroff!"**

–**Hugs tighter– "Coooooooooooool!"**

"**Hey, Ichigo, what are you– Who the hell is that?"**

"**I'm Bleacher27! –lets go and waves–"**

"**Oh thank you, kami, for getting this devil person off me."**

"**Hey, that's not nice, Ichigo –WHAM!– Hello, I'm Ruk– **_**cough cough**_** Ruk– **_**cough cough**_** Rini!" –gags–**

"**Oh man. Are you alright?"**

–**drinks water– "Yeah, yeah. I wonder what happened."**

–**shrugs– "I wouldn't know. I think that's all the time we have today, people! Enjoy the chapter!"**

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Ichigo yawned and rolled to his side. He was only pretending to be asleep, not wanting to get into another pointless argument. Arguing with Rini was too weird—it was like arguing with Rukia all over again, and he didn't need the reminder that she was gone. He suddenly spasmed, clutching his side. He pulled out the Soul Candy, muttering about how Rukia still managed torment him in death. He sighed and put in on the desk, not wanting it to poke him again. He finally fell into a fitful, restless sleep.

—_Ichigo's Dream—_

_Rukia walked into his room through the window. "It's near…" she muttered._

_Ichigo kicked her. The scene changed. "Don't save that child!" Rukia shouted, "Unless you are prepared to save them all!"_

_Ichigo scowled. "I saved him because I wanted to. Isn't it the same for you?" The hollow when Ichigo agreed to be partners._

_Nighttime. "And if you come after me, I'll never forgive you…"_

_The bridge to Soukuyu_

_The scene changed, it was sunset, at the Shiba residence. There was a reddish-orange glow on everything. "I think I'll stay here, in Soul Society."_

_His inner world. He just stabbed his sword into his hollow. His inner fight was over; he was now a Vaizard who can control his hollow._

_The scene changed again, Hueco Mundo. "Hey, Rukia! Don't close your eyes, alright? Rukia!"_

"_Will you just shut up?" she said, opening a single eye. "I just want you to know that I'm passing on my heart to you…"_

_King's Realm, Aizen's Invasion_

And they jumped into the portal. Ichigo looked around, amazed. It would've looked majestic in all its former glory, but now, this realm too was on fire. You could see Tousen's bankai at the entrance to the castle, having captured more than half of the defensive guards sent to ward off the traitors, no doubt. Ichigo scowled, and looked around for other entrances, another telltale sign of struggle to follow. It was then he spotted the end of Gin's shikai, stretching high over the castle walls, and several guards could be seen, impaled on it. Ichigo's eyebrows furrowed, grimacing slightly at the sight. Who knew just a shikai could take out twenty of the King's elite guards? Ichigo, Byakuya, Ikkaku, Renji, Soi Fong, Zaraki, Kurotshuchi Mayuri all rushed towards the sword. Yamamoto was still guarding Soul Society and the resting taichous. Unohana was too busy healing the shinigami and taichous to come out to the battlefront. All of Ichigo's friends were staying in Soul Society, taking care of the any hollow left. Once they reached Gin, Ikkaku, Renji, and Zaraki were left behind, as well as Mayuri and Soi Fong for Tousen. Now it was just Byakuya and Ichigo, searching for Aizen's reiatsu. Suddenly, Yamamoto appeared.

"Sou-taichou, what are you doing here?" Byakuya asked, barely batting an eyelid when he appeared.

"I told you that I would join you when the rest of the taichous are healed, right?"

Then they finally entered the castle, running through endless hallways and confusing passageways. Ichigo cursed, "Damn castle's so big. We'll never find him in time."

"Well Kurosaki, there's always the option of 'searching for his reiatsu'. And you call yourself a shinigami?"

Ichigo scowled, but didn't retort. They finally saw it. The doorway leading into the throne room… the large, ornate gold doors, engraved with dragons and the names of previous King's. The royal family… on the door, only the first names were written, since it was a given that they were a part of that family. And they pushed open the doors.

There sat Aizen, in the King's throne, the real King's body strewn carelessly to the side. It was a bloody mess. "Aizen…" Ichigo growled. His eyes narrowed. "I want to take care of him myself. He will pay for trying to harm my family."

"Don't get cocky, konso. We will—" Byakuya started, but then Yamamoto held out a hand.

"Let him do this. We should take this opportunity to find out just how powerful Kurosaki is. He has, no doubt, improved since his last visit to Soul Society. He's also a candidate for taichou, and although his power from his earlier visit would've been enough to be appointed taichou, I think we should see this," Yamamoto said, an air of finality around him as he rested both hands on his sword cane.

And with this, Ichigo leapt forward, grinning.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Ikkaku, Renji and Zaraki finally defeated Gin, Zaraki the bloodiest one of all. He was also the happiest of them all. He flicked the blood off his face with a finger, grinning. He wiped his sword off, sheathing it again. Ikkaku and Renji undid their bankai, both looking pretty damn happy themselves. They walked back towards Tousen, careful to tread on Gin's dead body, to check on how they were doing, although Zaraki almost ran off towards Ichigo and Aizen. He was only persuaded to come because Tousen was closer. Zaraki was disappointed to see that they already defeated Tousen, somehow managing to go around his bankai. Zaraki shrugged. "I guess all that's left is Aizen and Ichigo."

Renji frowned. "You mean just Aizen."

"No. I'm gonna kill that bastard Ichigo, the only one to have beaten me." He grinned his maniacal grin.

Ichigo woke up with a start, clutching his chest. "Hah… Hah…" He scowled. "Dreaming about the past again… huh," he thought. "Now I feel really old. As if being 150 helps any," He looked down on himself, " Huh. I guess Rini put this blanket on me."

"Stop whining, Ichigo. There are people older," his hollow sneered.

Zangetsu nodded sagely. "Ichigo, that's good. You must never forget what happened in the past, and learn from it."

"Shut up, you stupid hollow," Ichigo muttered, "And thank you, osan." Rini looked around, bleary eyed. She was half awake when Ichigo started to talk to himself.

"Hollow? You mean the evil spirits? Where?" she asked, looking around.

"Hu—Huh? You were awake? Ah, never mind that, it's nothing," Ichigo replied hastily. It wouldn't really help if she found out he was part hollow, even if he did save her before. He walked out of the room, scratching the back of his neck and yawning, heading for the bathroom to brush his teeth.

Rini looked at her desk, and saw the Soul Candy.

"How cuuuuuute!" she squealed, "A rabbit!" She picked it up, examining it. "Soul Candy…" she muttered to herself, and shrugged. It wouldn't hurt to try, right? Just then, Ichigo came barging in, and grabbed it out of her hands.

"Don't eat this. Just… don't," Ichigo said, scowling. Rukia's look-alike, holding her old Soul Candy dispenser… it was eerie. That and it really wouldn't be good to have her soul pushed out, only to be replaced with Kon instead. He pocketed the Soul Candy, and walked out of the room to Karin and Yuzu's room, shutting the door behind him.

Rini scowled, muttering darkly about strawberries with no manners. She picked up the blanket Ichigo tossed aside and put it back neatly on her bed. "But why was he going into the guest room in such a hurry? Che, probably just some shinigami meeting… I wonder what they talk about." Shrugging, she walked towards the closed door, and put her ear to it.

Keigo sighed. "We have to tail her?! Why?"

"Keigo, you dumbass. You know the orders are to tail, and to eliminate if need be," Ichigo said.

"But there? Of all places, we have to go there?!" Keigo said, throwing his hands up into the air.

"Yes…" said Chad, "Keigo."

"There'll be girls," Ishida said flatly.

"Okay!" Keigo said, grinning.

But this time, it was Ichigo who was talking, "But ya know, I went there for a time in my life, and after all the crap that happened there before, I don't want to do it again. Idiots trying to beat me up 'cause of my hair…"

"You," Chad muttered, "can beat them up already."

"Meh," Ichigo sighed, "but it's annoying to have to keep on fighting weaklings."

As Rini crept away, disappointed, she didn't hear Inoue saying, "Good thing today is Sunday. We don't have to wait long before we go to school tomorrow."

**XXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**A/N: Sigh. If I kept on writing, I would've gotten fewer reviews since I would have had fewer chapters. Or you can prove me wrong and give me double the reviews! Or not. Meh, either way. But damn, I really wanted to get to ****that**** part, but I'm still far off… Um, I dunno if you consider this a cliffie or not, so make of it what you will. But I suppose the next chapter will be funny. I think. Or should I develop some more plot bunnies? Your reviews will decide it, cuz I don't care either way (since I have some really serious chapters ahead… I think it may be good to laugh when you can). **

**Yosh! It's Kon-sama, back here to give you the great gift that is my company!**

**What the hell are you doing here? Go away, stupid plushie.**

**Ichigo! You're back!**

**Ah… —backs off— bye!**

**Oh well —shrugs— at least he took Kon with him.**

**Okay everyone, I've been ranting and being my crazy, sleep-deprived self, so I'll just end it with begs for reviews, especially since I wrote a two chapters for the price of one. So, if you'd just kindly click the 'Go' button, I'd really appreciate it! Seriously… I'm doing this instead of my homework… I need to know it was worth it. XD bye, everyone!**


	6. AN

A/N 

Yea, this is an A/N. Sorry. But it will do you good to read the whole thing, cos some things will be mentioned in the end that some may consider important or interesting. I just got back a few days ago, and for some reason, this thing wouldn't load. So if you expect a chapter the next day, you're fucking crazy. :D Ugh. So. Jet. Lagged. _--falls over and dies--_ Damn. I guess I won't finish this story.

Eeeeee, but I'm so excited! 70+ reviews for only five chapters! And I'm happy to say that hopefully, hopefully, no promises, things will get interesting soon. Like, the next chapter. So, what exactly was the point of this extremely annoying A/N? Well, if you guys have any suggestions for the story, what should happen, and stuff like that, I'll try to include them if the idea isn't absolutely crazy. There are two things I would like you guys to concentrate on, though. Since this story is set in the future, do you want some new gadgets and gismos? Since I suck when it comes to thinking of some that don▓t suck or sound absolutely stupid or corny, if you guys could put an idea into a review and tell me, it would be appreciated. Or, if you hate the idea of futuristic inventions, tell me that in a review too (I personally don't like it, but if anyone can think up of ones that don't sound too sci-fi or cheesy, I'll do it. If nobody tells me shit, I won't do any futuristic shtuff). Number two. If anyone can think of a good shikai for Keigo, tell me. Also, do you want Ichigo and the rest to have other, new powers? I dunno. I've found that often, when people try to make up their own, it just sounds stupid. So, if you're against it (new powers), tell me. If nobody tells me any ideas that aren't corny, I'll just go with my preference and not do it (the new powers). Also, if nobody tells me any interesting ideas for Keigo's shikai, I'll just go with my little sisters suggestion. Bye!


	7. High School Never Ends

**High School Never Ends**

Ichigo yawned, his mouth opening wide. Damn. School, _again_. He didn't need idiots staring at his hair and his teachers giving him a hard time once more. In fact, Keigo seemed to be the only one to be excited about this whole mess. He keeps on jumping from one person to another, shouting in their ears about how happy he is to finally be able to meet new girls. He sighed to himself. Some people never change.

Rini walked in, deliberately stepping on Ichigo's stomach (he was laying down on the floor of her room), already dressed in her school uniform.

"You should wake up earlier, Ichigo," she sighed, grabbing her bag and heading back downstairs.

He groaned at her full weight on him for a moment, and shot up, clutching his stomach. He glanced at the clock, seeing that it was 7:45. Any other school day, he would have jumped up and started changing, all the while shouting "I'm gonna be late!" Fortunately, he was going to be a new student today, so he didn't have to show up until the afternoon. It would take any other normal person the first half of the school day to straighten up the paperwork, but he planned to just use a memory modifier. It was good being lazy. He rolled over, running a hand through his messy hair before Ishida and Keigo burst into the room.

"Ichigo! We must go to the school! Now!" Keigo shouted, and surprisingly, Ishida was agreeing with him, although in a less conspicuous way. He solemnly nodded his head, and said, "Kurosaki, Keigo's right. Which is a first," he muttered to himself, "we should start school early so we can observe her as much as we can."

Ichigo sighed, and turned to the clock. School already started, so he figured it wouldn't really matter now if he rushed or not. With a groan, he dragged himself out of bed and started to change. Ishida and Keigo were already ready, so Chad joined Ichigo in his old room while the girls dressed. You could hear shouts of "No, Keigo!" from Ishida, and then Ishida marches past Ichigo's door, with a crying Keigo in tow (as in dragging by the scruff of the neck). Ichigo watched this procession warily, snorting as it finishes. He stretches and yawns, now fully dressed. He headed towards the girls, and knocking on the door, shouts, "Oi! You done yet?"

The door is pulled violently open, revealing an angry Tatsuki. "What?" she seethed.

"I—uh—ano… I was just wondering if you guys were finished yet…" he finished meekly. Apparently, Tatsuki wasn't much of a morning person.

Her expression softened, her lips forming a silent "Oh"

"Uh, anyways," Ichigo started cautiously, "We're going to school now. Is Inoue ready yet?"

At these words, a super hyper Inoue bounded out of the door, nearly knocking Ichigo over in the process.

"Good morning, everyone!"

Damn. How _does_ she do it?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 

"So, where is it?"

"I don't know!" This was a girl's voice.

"Hey now, didn't you have a memo with you when we left?" The guy again.

"I lost it!"

"What are you doing?!"

"Heh heh, gomen, Kurosaki-kun."

"It's alright, Inoue. You don't need to apologize. Just head for her reiatsu!"

"I don't take orders from you, Ishida!"

"Kurosaki, you're too damn hot headed. I think it's just 'cause you suck at detecting reiatsu."

"Oi! That's ah… erm… I found her!"

"Just now, _taichou_? We felt her the minute we walked into this building!"

"Shut up. Here's the room."

And Ichigo, Ishida, Chad, Tatsuki, Inoue, and Keigo walked in.

The teacher looked over her shoulder as she was writing on the white board.

"Ah, yes, the new students. The principal called me about you. Go ahead and introduce yourselves while I finish up this last statement."

Rini, meanwhile, was a cross between white as death and about as green as puke. Which is what she probably was about to do.

Ichigo sighed, one hand in his pocket and another running through his hair, lean muscles rippling, and standing slightly slouched. Half the girls in the room swooned, while the other, calmer half just had hearts in their eyes. And the guys stared daggers at him.

"I'm Kurosaki Ichigo," he said scowling. Rini seemed to reclaim control of herself, and glared at him with the rest of the guys.

"Sado Yasutora." The guys looked pretty pissed with him too.

"Ishida Uryuu."

"Asano Keigo." The girls looked disgusted as he ogled each and every one of them.

"Arisawa Tatsuki."

And now for the killer. "Inoue Orihime." And then there was an explosion. Half the guys stood up, eyeing her, while the calmer ones just stared at her unabashed. Ishida growled, glasses gleaming, and Chad put his hand on Ishida's shoulder.

The teacher turned around from the white board, grinning. "Okay, everyone, settle down. Now, I'm glad to have some new students, since the old ones were getting boring."

An ominous blue cloud appeared over the class, everyone looking a bit put out.

"Now… who should I pick to show these students around…? Hmm, well, I think I'll need more than one."

"Sensei," Ichigo cut in, "We already pretty much know our way around here. _Since we've been here before_," he thought, "So just one should be fine. How 'bout her? She looks alright."

"_Oh fuck no," _Rini thought. That bastard Ichigo was pointing right at her, smirking.

"Hmm," the teacher tapped her chin thoughtfully, eyeing the two scowling people. "Alright. Figured that someone like you would choose someone like her. She seems to be scowling a lot too. Okay, everyone find an empty seat, and Kurosaki, you can go ahead and take the one next to… Hmm, Kurosaki. That's odd. Are you two related?"

"Nooo," Ichigo quickly supplied, "Just a coincidence."

"Yeah, yeah, sensei," Rini said, forcing a laugh, then started to stare straight at him. "Never seen this guy before in my life."

Ichigo shrugged and walked to his seat, twenty pairs of lovesick eyes following him.

"Oooooooooooi, Kurosaki! I know for sure that we aren't related, 'cause nobody in the history of my family has ever been as short as you." He smirked. He was going to pay Rukia back, even if it has to be given to a reincarnation that remembers nothing of Rukia's life.

Oh well.

Wham! "Ooooooh, gomen, Kurosaki-kun! My hand slipped."

"Hand slipped my ass…" Ichigo grumbled. How the hell do you 'accidentally' pick up your school bag full of hard, heavy, books and chuck it at the person next to you?

All of a sudden, a tattooed, red haired man appeared on Ichigo's desk, clad in the usual black and white. Once upon a happier time, Ichigo would've jumped up and screamed, much like what Rini is doing now. Ichigo had gotten used to the weird ways of the shinigami after a hundred years. In fact, everyone else from Ichigo's team barely flinched, the only reaction being a curious glance. But Rini was going berserk, jabbering and pointing at Renji. And funnily enough, Renji was acting the same way.

"R—Rukia?!"

"Wha—? Nooooo…" She said cautiously, "Besides, why does everyone I meet call me that?"

Ichigo sighed. _"This day could be worse," _he mused. He forced Rini into a standing position, and wrapped an arm around her waist, picking her up. He looked at Renji, and quietly muttered an "I'll explain outside. C'mon."

The minute Ichigo and Rini left, as if by an unspoken signal, all of the new kids stood up and left, with horrible excuses of going to the bathroom. All of the kids looked from the teacher to the empty doorway, curious to know what would happen next. The teacher just shrugged and went back to writing on the board, and the whole class sweatdropped.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX 

"What are you doing here?" Ichigo seethed, turning red. Everyone except Renji took a big step backwards.

"Hey, hey, relax! The higher ups only sent me here since you're taking too long to show any progress." Renji said easily, grinning.

"Tell me… huh. Did they demote you or something?" Ichigo snickered.

"Demo—Huh? Whaddya mean?" Renji asked, eyebrows furrowed, head tilted slightly to the side.

"You're doing something even a _hell butterfly _could do?! Oh, how the mighty have fallen," Ichigo burst into fresh gales of laughter. That is, of course, until Renji grabbed his shirt and told him to shut up.

Ichigo scowled and brushed himself off, asking, "Okay, what is the real reason you're here? Or the full reason?"

Renji sighed. "Alright, the higher ups _are_ getting irritated, but to be honest, since you brought most of your seated members with you, I'm to observe them and choose the best one for your fuku-taichou. They believe that you need one, so they're forcing one on you."

Ichigo sighed. "I really wish they would mind their own business. I've been doing fine for a hundred years, and _now_ they believe I need one? Whatever."

"Now," Renji said, a look of utmost seriousness on his face, "Why does that girl look so much like Rukia?"

"Oh that," Ichigo said casually, waving the subject off dismissively. "Apparently, she's—"

Rini punched Ichigo in the stomach. "Don't talk about me like I'm not even here!"

The rest of Ichigo's team looked on in amusement. It was just like the old days.

Ishida continued on in the place of the twitching Ichigo on the floor. "His father believes that she's the reincarnation of Rukia, but we can't be sure. And…" he motioned him closer, while Rini was shouting and kicking Ichigo on the floor. "Isshin's the one who took her in, and she doesn't know that Isshin is Ichigo's father. Also, she has been told a little about the shinigami, you know, hollows and the like. Finally, she works for Urahara-san."

Renji raised his eyebrows. "…Wow. If she really _is_ the reincarnation of Rukia, her reiatsu would be higher than most humans… and then factor in the fact that she's always surrounded by shinigami… Urahara-san and Isshin-san."

Rini turned away from the moaning Ichigo to look at them with a questioning eye. "Are you talking about me?"

Renji sweat dropped. "Ah… ano… well you see… no."

Everyone else sighed. It was so obvious he was lying.

She shrugged. "Oh well. It's lunchtime anyways. I suppose I have no other choice than to have you wonderful people as my guests. My friends and I usually eat on the roof," she said, smiling an equally obvious fake smile.

Ichigo paled and stood up. "Shit," he cursed. One day, on a whim, Keigo started to carve their names into the metal box on the roof that housed all of the water and electricity controls. "Asano Keigo, Kurosaki Ichigo, Kuchiki Rukia, Arisawa Tatsuki, Inoue Orihime (this name had little hearts around it), Sado Yasutora, Ishida Uryuu, 2000!!!" This wasn't good. Not only did he want Rini to know as little as possible about him and his crew, but if her friends see that, there're going to be more than a few awkward questions to answer.

"Let's go," he said, scowling at Keigo, who gave him a confused look. Ichigo strode in front of procession at a brisk pace, with everyone else struggling to catch up.

Rini frowned. How did he know his way around this school so easily? She brushed the idea off, crediting his absurd knowledge of the school to a map he must've memorized. When they reached the top, he practically ran through the crowd of girls, which Ichigo assumed to be Rini's friends, and jumped on top of the box, his legs dangling over the writing. He just laid back, relieved that he managed to cover it up. He covered his closed eyes with his forearm, his scowl still present. The girls just looked at him, wondering about this sudden whirlwind. Finally, Rini and the others reached Ichigo and Rini's friends, and Rini introduced them.

"These are the new students, remember? I hope you don't mind them having lunch with us today."

"Oh sure, we don't mind," said one, giving Ichigo an appreciative look. Rini wrinkled her nose.

One by one, everyone pulled out his or her sack lunch and plopped down onto the floor. Ichigo just continued to lie there.

"Kurosaki-kun, aren't you going to eat anything?"

"Nah."

"Don't worry about him, Inoue. Kurosaki can take care of himself."

"Oh, shit." Ichigo grumbled. Another hollow was here. In fact, it seemed it was coming straight for them, drawn by their reiatsu, no doubt. And here he was thinking that he was hiding his reiatsu pretty well.

"Hmm?" one of the girls cooed, "did you say something, Kurosaki-kun?"

All he did in response was back away from her, and Tatsuki snickered. "I'll take care of it, Ichigo."

She dispensed the Soul Candy in her big pocket in the middle of her hoodie, keeping the dispenser carefully out of sight. She didn't want to be asked useless questions about why it's called Soul Candy. She popped the pill into her mouth, swallowing it whole, and then she came apart from her body. Rini gaped at her, making incoherent sounds as her mouth gaped open. Her friends all looked at her, confused.

"What's wrong, Ri—"

"Hey," Ichigo hurriedly interrupted, "did you hear about that stupid school booster program? They choose all of our guys to be in a stupid auction. Apparently, we're all going to be auctioned on for a date."

Suddenly, everyone's (or at least all of the guys in Ichigo's group and all of Rini's friends) eyes were on him.

"Uh… yeah…" he said, nervously scratching the back of his neck. He hurriedly pulled off his jacket and put it down in such a manner that it draped across the lettering. The Chappy head stuck out of his pocket. He shook his head, and picked the jacket back up, and started away only after kicking the words several times so the dirt from his shoes would be caked on it. Everyone else stared at him like he was mental, although apparently, a crazy guy is a hot guy to these disturbed girls.

He backed away slowly, and then ran away, but only after grabbing Rini's wrist and taking him with him. Her friends all sighed in disappointment.

Once they were on the ground floor of the school, Ichigo sighed, telling himself that he should probably tell her more about shinigami as to prevent her from gasping every time something minimal happened.

"Alright, midget, you might wanna take notes on this."

She pulled out a notebook-looking spiral bound book. Ichigo nodded in approval. She flipped it open, hastily hiding whatever was in it from Ichigo. He looked at her, somewhat interested. He shrugged, and gestured towards the floor, inviting her to sit down. She did, and he took the liberty of sitting next to her.

He took in a deep breath. "Okay, since there have been weird hollow here lately, and an excess of spirits in this town, my team has been sent to Earth to send the spirits to Soul Society and vanquish the hollows."

She nodded in understanding, and started to move her pencil over the notepad.

"Because of the hollow, I figured something big may be happening, and higher forms of hollow may appear. These hollow are bigger, stronger, but for the most part, stupider. If you ever happen to come across any hollow without us there, just run as fast as you can."

Her hand movements started to get bigger, then resumed its calmer movements.

"Since I already explained about the gigais, what happens when we leave them is that we eat a special gikongan and our souls are pushed out of the faux body, leaving a fake on in it's stead. That's what you saw earlier. And I'd appreciate it if you didn't act so conspicuously every time something remotely spiritual happens."

She nodded, and then flipped her notebook around. "Is this all correct?"

Ichigo gagged. The notebook was really a sketchbook, and it was now full with the "notes" she took. Her drawings where actually quite good—compared to a four year old. They looked exactly like Rukia's… he should probably spend less time with Rini—each passing minute reminded him of Rukia and how much they were alike. He sighed, eyeing the evil bunnies with masks on, and the smiling bunnies (all except one—the one with orange hair), and shook his head. He was going to let her pass on this one. He shouldn't always insult her anyways, no matter how much she was like Rukia. Next time he would, he thought. Nah.

"What the hell is that?!" he asked, mock squinting at the paper, "Donkeys?"

She turned pink, put on a disgruntled look on, and smacked him with the notebook.

He yelped, even though he didn't expect anything except for what had just happened to happen, and left, clutching his head and muttering about idiot evil midgets.

Rini sighed, relieved. Finally. Some time alone. What with Ichigo now in both her home life _and _her school life, she couldn't even think anymore. For some reason, Ichigo was not only distracting, but had some sort of weird effect on her—affecting her thinking or something. Hmm. Wonder why. _What sort of relationship could they have possibly had that made her so comfortable and at ease with him?!_ Well, she didn't know.

She crossed her legs, carefully placing her closed sketchbook on her lap. She rested her chin in her hands, and thought back to the weird performance Ichigo put on before. He was kicking over the spot where the names were. She read it, but couldn't for the life of her remember the names, or the year, for that matter. It was written in an old version of Japanese—still legible, but hard to read. All she could remember was that one of the guys had a weird name—a fruit or something. She gasped, her eyes widening in sudden understanding.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 

Tatsuki panted. Stupid-reiatsu-concealing-remnants-of-the-old-war-hollow. She underestimated the damn thing, and now she had a gash on her arm. She sighed. It was annoying, really. She grinned maniacally, spreading her feet and raising her released sword. Her sword was very unique, one of a kind in Soul Society, and the only other double sword to appear in Soul Society (other than the two already there). But it wasn't much of a sword. In reality, it was really just a living, breathing, souped up pair of brass knuckles. On each hand donned a shiny, silvery knuckle. It was tipped with sharp points at the end, rather than just the regular blunt ends. Also, it is in part an elemental zanpakutou. She could charge them up, swiping the points up against each other really fast (like sharpening a knife), then releasing the electric energy. She growled, dodging the hollow's horrible attempt to eat her. She leapt up into the air, and with one mighty punch to the head, cleansed the hollow.

Tatsuki resealed her sword, brushing her hands off and wincing. She shrugged. Time to go back.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Rini frantically looked through the old library yearbooks, but only after arguing with that old wrinkled librarian, who was absolutely convinced that she was going to torch the place. She frowned, looking at the collection of very, _very _old yearbooks. Holy shit! Some date back to more than 150 years ago. The earlier ones couldn't be saved since the special container they were stored in used to be reserved for museums only. "_Technology sure had become cheaper over the years_," she mused. She squinted through the case, and found the one yearbook she was looking for. She slid the case open, and picked it up carefully, as if it was going to disintegrate (it was a very real possibility). Year 2000, Karakura High. She flipped to the class pages, first looking through the freshman pages, looking for a shock of orange hair, among other things, such as a boy with glasses, a girl with orange hair, a girl with short black hair, a dark skinned boy and a perverted looking one. Nope. Not with the freshman. Now, onto the sophomores. Her eyes widened. She found one of them. Sado Yasutora. And another! Asano Keigo. She winced. And… Arisawa Tatsuki. Inoue Orihime. Ishida Uryuu. Finally, Kurosaki Ichigo. She cursed. So they came here before, the year before the mysterious massacre. Maybe they knew something? She continued to leaf through the yearbook, looking for more pictures of them, some proof that they were friends before their shinigami days. Good. A group picture! There was Ishida glaring at Keigo, who was ogling Inoue, and Tatsuki looked ready to punch Keigo's lights out. Chad was sitting quietly, enjoying his lunch (the photographers took this during lunch, up in _her_ lunch spot). But the last thing she saw was what made her gasp. There was a smiling _her_, sitting with Ichigo, strawberries in her forgotten plate as she grabbed Ichigo's face and forced him to smile, both of them looking straight at the camera. She also noticed Ichigo was resting on his arms at the moment (sitting back with the weight on his two arms behind him), and one of them was halfway behind her, as if protecting her from some unseen monster.

She gasped, and hurriedly looked down to the caption. "From left to right: Ishida, Inoue, Keigo, Tatsuki, Chad, and Ichigo with his high school sweetheart, Rukia."

She needed to talk to Ichigo. Now.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 

**A/N: Hey guys!! Yes, I know. Long absence. I apologize, I apologize! When I came back from my trip, school started 2 days later, and then I had gotten sick, and then homework… just a lot of crap. But I'm happy! This is my sophomore year, which will help decide my future and affect the rest of my life. But no pressure! So, yeah. I will try to be as consistent as possible, but –sigh— I dunno. Also, I've talked about how I may or may not give them new powers/ new tech. But I figured if tech didn't progress dramatically for us in the last hundred years, why should it start now? As you may have noticed, I just put some of the more advanced tech into everyday life. As for Tatsuki's shikai… I hope you liked it, though it wasn't my favorite thing ever. **

**But hey, this is a longer chapter than usual… so I hope you guys will forgive me and my future un-regular-ness-ess. So please review (is this a cliffie for you? Meh. Doesn't seem that pressing, but you're curious, no?)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm aiming for at least 100 reviews for this story, so please help me out on this. If you review, I'll update faster! Promise! And the next chapter will be pretty interesting….**

**UPDATED 10-09-07**

**OKAY, EVERYONE! IF YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY OBSESSED WITH THE STORIES YOU ARE CURRENTLY READING, LIKE I AM, YOU MAY OR MAY NOT SEE THIS NEW UPDATE. SO EVERYONE, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW THIS CHAPTER! I AM NOT GOING TO UPDATE UNTIL THE REVIEW NUMBER GOES UP TO 100. IT'S 97 AS I SPEAK, SO I KNOW I AM NOT BEING CRUEL OR UNUSUAL OR DEMANDING. I ALLOW ANONYMOUS REVIEWS, SO JUST DO IT! LIKE NIKE! JUST DO IT!**


	8. Unanswered Questions

**Unanswered Questions**

Rini ran through the lunch-deserted hallways, clutching the photocopy of the yearbook to her chest. She huffed, and then cursed never actually working out during PE. When she ran throughout the whole school, she skidded to a stop and leaned against the wall, panting. She furrowed her brows, and thought. If each shinigami had this "reiatsu," shouldn't she be able to track each signature if she concentrated? Every time she was with Ichigo, she could feel his reiatsu, strong but gentle. If she could just concentrate on how that felt…

She closed her eyes, and took a couple a deep breaths, slowing them to a sleeping rate. Suddenly, hundreds of white ribbons (with the occasional red one thrown in) appeared and seemed to wave around her. Her reiatsu rose, concentrating on finding just one special reiatsu.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Tatsuki strolled the quiet hallways of Karakura High, back from the hollow extermination. She was whistling to herself, when she suddenly stopped. On the floor, innocently on its side, lay a Chappy Soul Candy dispenser. She cocked an eyebrow. Only one person she knew had a Chappy one, despite it being the most popular brand. She sighed and shook her head. It was really unlike Ichigo to let this thing get lost. She stooped down and pocketed it, turning a corner. And nearly ran over Rini. Tatsuki stopped, looking curiously at Rini. _'How did she…? No… That's impossible! So far, Ichigo was the only human capable of doing this. Maybe she really _is _the reincarnation of Rukia.'_

Suddenly, Rini's hand shot out, grabbing a red ribbon. Tatsuki's eyes widened. She did it. She found him. Clearing her throat, since Rini was about to dash off, Tatsuki shoved herself off the wall with her elbow (she was leaning on the white walls, legs crossed, and her hands in her pockets).

"How'd you do that, Rini?" Tatsuki slowly asked. Her expression was unreadable, and it was creeping Rini out.

"Uh… concentrate?"

Tatsuki nodded (again, slowly), as if the feeble explanation made all the sense in the world. She inwardly frowned, wanting to further this investigation, if not for the new hollow approaching. "Stupid hollow…" she muttered. She shook her head, as if suddenly tuning into reality. "Anyways, Rini, could you take this to Ichigo? I know you're looking for him, and I would've given it to him myself if it wasn't for the stupid hollow showing up right now. I should go back up to the roof and get Keigo. That idiot needs practice." And she stalked off, hands in her pockets, head slightly lowered in contemplative thought.

"How did she…?" Rini muttered. Apparently, she had no idea of the visual phenomena she had created while she had her eyes closed. No idea that every member of Ichigo's crew went much further than just high school friends. What they had gone through together _before _death. She peered at the thing hurriedly pressed into her hand.

"Cuuuuuuuute!" she squealed. She tilted it to the side, reading the fancy script. _Soul Candy. _Hmm… wasn't this the candy she wanted to steal from Ichigo (though she called it "sharing." Since sharing is caring, after all)?

—_Flashback—_

_Rini looked at her desk, and saw the Soul Candy._

"_How cuuuuuute!" she squealed, "A rabbit!" She picked it up, examining it. "Soul Candy…" she muttered to herself, and shrugged. It wouldn't hurt to try, right? Just then, Ichigo came barging in, and grabbed it out of her hands. _

"_Don't eat this. Just… don't," Ichigo said, scowling. Rukia's look-alike, holding her old Soul Candy dispenser… it was eerie. That and it really wouldn't be good to have her soul pushed out, only to be replaced with Kon instead. He pocketed the Soul Candy, and walked out of the room to Karin and Yuzu's room, shutting the door behind him._

—_End Flashback—_

She scowled at the memory. Why was the jerk so sensitive about this candy dispenser anyways? She shrugged. _"Let bygones be bygones," _she supposed.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Ichigo wandered aimlessly around the empty school hallways, hands in pockets. Suddenly, his substitute shinigami badge started blaring. Ichigo jumped, clutching his chest. Why did he still use that thing anyways? He was no longer just a substitute… _because it reminded him of the old days. The happy days between Rukia's execution and Hueco Mundo. _

He chuckled. He was reminiscing! Now he felt _really _old. He shook his head, allowing himself to indulge in his memories once again…

—_Flashback—_

_Ichigo scowled, but didn't retort. They finally saw it. The doorway leading into the throne room… the large, ornate gold doors, engraved with dragons and the names of previous King's. The royal family… on the door, only the first names were written, since it was a given that they were a part of that family. And they pushed open the doors._

_There sat Aizen, in the King's throne, the real King's body strewn carelessly to the side. It was a bloody mess. "Aizen…" Ichigo growled. His eyes narrowed. "I want to take care of him myself. He will pay for trying to harm my family."_

"_Don't get cocky, konso. We will—" Byakuya started, but then Yamamoto held out a hand._

"_Let him do this. We should take this opportunity to find out just how powerful Kurosaki is. He has, no doubt, improved since his last visit to Soul Society. He's also a candidate for taichou, and although his power from his earlier visit would've been enough to be appointed taichou, I think we should see this," Yamamoto said, an air of finality around him as he rested both hands on his sword cane._

_And with this, Ichigo leapt forward, grinning._

_Suddenly, the room filled with menos._

_Ichigo's eye twitched with annoyance. "I thought you guys took care of these brainless idiots! What happened?"_

_Byakuya scoffed. "As always, Kurosaki, opening your mouth before putting that sorry excuse of a brain of yours to work. Have you never heard of NOT dispatching all of your forces in one place? Aizen obviously snuck these in, using his zanpakto."_

_Ichigo scowled, suppressing the urge to Getsuga Tensho him one._

_Instead, he just turned back towards the enemy, and with one giant Getsuga Tensho, rid the room of the lowest of the greatest hollows._

_Aizen laughed. "Byakuya, so quick to show your superiority as always! In fact, little Ichigo-kun was correct… these menos couldn't have gotten in, even with the help of my zanpakto. It would be too risky to double task chanting our way into the King's Realm and sneaking in hundreds of menos at once. Besides, I couldn't care less if I dispatched them in one spot and had them all annihilated. They are ONLY menos grande," he sneered, "How does it feel, Byakuya, to be bested by a youngster?"_

_Apparently, this was a man who loved to gloat._

_Ichigo's eye twitched, and a vein popped. "Shut up, old man. You have the nerve to pick a fight with someone who's not your opponent? Getting cocky, eh? Thinking you could handle two at once? I told them: I will personally kill the man who tried to hurt my family, and…" he paused, taking a deep breath, " my closest friends."_

_And with that, Ichigo took an uninterrupted leapt towards Aizen's face, bankai at the ready. Aizen sneered and easily deflected it with his hand, never even leaving the throne. Ichigo cursed, twisting his body in midair and slashing at Aizen's outstretched hand. He lopped off two fingers of his right hand. Ichigo grinned. Great. So not only was Aizen not undefeatable, but he managed to take out two of his fingers in his right hand. Which grew back. Ichigo paled. _'Shit!' _he thought, _'His fucking sword showed me an illusion.'

_This was going to take a while._

—_End—_

_Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!!_

Ichigo started up, his eyes snapping open. He groaned, ruffling a hand through his hair, standing straight up. Lunch was over, and he walked towards the class. As he neared, he frowned. It seemed as if somebody was raising his or her reiatsu, but he didn't recognize it… only one person could do that. Rini. He concentrated… yes! That was her reiatsu… but why was she raising it? She was doing it consciously too, so she wasn't in danger. That was good. But… if she wasn't in danger, why? And it was then that Ichigo turned the corner and walked into Rini, who happened to have been running towards Ichigo, now that she found his location. Rini's small frame was easily knocked back, the paper she clutched in her hands flying out. Ichigo, on the other hand, just blinked and stood there, unaffected. After a second pause, he started up, and bent down to help her up, extending his hand. Rini "hmph'ed" and turned her head, gathering herself and sitting on the floor, arms crossed. Ichigo rolled his eyes and remained there. Rini sighed, taking his hand, and dragging herself up from the floor. When she brushed herself off, she kicked him, hard, in the shins.

"E-tai! What the hell was that for, you sadistic midget?!" Ichigo yelped, grabbing his shin.

"You should learn to be a gentleman and apologize immediately," Rukia sniffed.

Ichigo's eye twitched. "Why were you running anyways?! _Proper ladies shouldn't run around like idiots when it's time for school._" He did an uncanny impression of her voice.

This earned him another kick.

As Ichigo hopped around on one leg cursing loudly, Rini walked towards her dropped copy of the yearbook, and looked at the picture, comparing the photo of Ichigo to the real thing.

"_It's crazy, really. I mean, to look exactly the same as you did when you were fifteen… for that to happen, you must've died when you were fifteen… wait. What? And his friends were with him, looking the same as well. So they didn't separate and reunite. But what could've possibly have happened to have killed them all? Ichigo… who are you?" _Rini thought.

Ichigo looked up from his spot on the floor, gingerly picking himself up. He looked curiously at the piece of paper Rini was holding, and paled. She seemed to be comparing him to the photo, and from what he could tell, since the light was shining through, it was the old group picture. He bounded up, and grabbed the paper from her hand.

"Where did you get this?" he demanded, scowling more than usual.

"Excuse you," Rini said haughtily, snatching it back, "If you wanted to see this, you could've asked."

"May. I. See. It?" Ichigo asked through gritted teeth, not wanting to bother with another argument, so he just cooperated.

"No."

A vein popped.

"What?!"

"You didn't let me finish, dumbass! Not until you tell me everything about Rukia and why she looks like me."

Ichigo sighed, and rubbed his temples. "Alright. Fuck class. I'll tell you everything that happened between Rukia and I during our high school years."

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeee's IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIchigo?!" said Keigo in a very long, _long,_ drawn out wail. The rest of the returning class covered their ears.

Ishida wrinkled his nose in disgust.

Tatsuki smacked him one on his head, and hissed, "Shut up!"

Keigo cried. He suddenly stopped as he noticed a certain someone's seat empty.

"Ichigo! That bastard! And… And… Rini's gone! I bet he took her with him to—"

"DON'T finish that sentence." Tatsuki raised a fist.

Too bad she couldn't do the same with the rest of the class, 'cause now they all have a very vivid image involving 'Kurosaki-kun' and 'Rini-chan'. Murmurs racked the classroom, everyone turning to their neighbor and discussing the exciting new installment of "Karakura High Romance! (Now with 5x the romance)."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 

Meanwhile, just when Ichigo was about to tell Rini the secrets of his high school life with Rukia, they both started sneezing, over and over again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 

Isshin looked at Urahara anxiously. "So? I've given you my thoughts. What do you think about this whole 'Rukia-Rini' issue?"

"Ah… Well!" he shouted, waving his fan, "Only time will tell, ne?"

Isshin sweat dropped. "So far, out of your whole entire life, that was the most half-assed, horrible reason I've ever heard. And you're the founder of the Bureau of Technology!"

"So?" Urahara asked, fanning himself once more.

Isshin's nose wrinkled in disgust, and turned to leave. "I have to reopen the clinic. I don't have time to do this. Next time, when I come back, I expect a full answer."

Urahara nodded, his face sober. Whatever he was thinking, it couldn't be good.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 

Ichigo gritted his teeth. _"Tell her as little as possible! She shouldn't be involved in these things. Just enough to satisfy her curiosity, and that's it," _he thought.

"Absolutely nothing."

Rini gaped at him for only a second, before her confusion gave way to anger.

"WHAT?!"

"Nothing happened between Rukia and I."

"No shit, I'm asking you why she looks like me, and why it says 'High School Sweethearts' next to a picture of you and Rukia!"

"What?! Lemme see that!" Ichigo grabbed the paper from her loose hands, and squinted down at the caption, disbelief etched in every feature. "Stupid Keigo…" he growled. "Oh my God!" he ranted. Rini twitched back in surprise, with 'What the fuck?' written all over her face.

"Stupid Keigo! I _told _him… I _told _him not to do that! We weren't even fucking going out! No wonder everyone suddenly assumed that we were going out after the yearbook came out! At first, some were doubtful, but then 'poof!' wup! We were going out! Fucking Keigo…" Ichigo muttered darkly, "I am going to _kill _him! Going to go to my fucked up crazy sideways world, lock myself into a room with Keigo, and tell my stupid hollow 'Here! Knock yourself out! Just give control back to me when you're done.'"

"I… Wait… What?!" Rini stared blankly at him, utterly confused.

"Huh? Oh… yeah, just forget I said anything," Ichigo said, chuckling nervously and scratching the back of his head. "Alright, basically, Rukia was a shinigami who saved me during my mortal life. She made a big sacrifice, and nearly died for my family and I. That's all. I don't want to talk about it anymore."

Rini nodded. _"Whenever you want to tell me… I will be here." _She thought.

Ironically enough, it was similar in context to Rukia's past words of comfort, regarding his mother. But he didn't know that.

They were in fact, more closely intertwined than Ichigo knew at the moment.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Later…

Rini yawned as she lay sprawled across her bed. She rubbed her eyes tiredly, and didn't even bother to change as she drifted off to sleep. Then something poked her in the gut. She groaned and pulled out a rabbit head topped candy dispenser. She looked at it bemusedly. Ichigo wasn't here… apparently, he freaked out when he searched his pockets for something, and decided to run back to school to search. She popped one out into her hand and examined it closely. Didn't seem dangerous (who knew what that Soul Society place could crank out, right?)…

Downstairs, a door slam and a 'I'm home!' could be heard.

Rini shrugged and popped it into her mouth.

Ichigo jogged up the stairs and opened the door.

At the very same time, a soul popped out, wearing all black, with a katana strapped to her side with a black belt. But something was very wrong. There was another soul, who looked exactly like the other, with a chain attached to the body. The plus soul looked confused, and a little scared. The shinigami just stared at her hands, then looked up.

Then smiled.

And said those fateful words, words of recognition.

"Sashi-buli, ne, Ichigo? (Long time no see, huh, Ichigo?)

"Rukia…" Ichigo gasped, gaping at her.

She grinned. "Who else would I be, baka?"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**A/N: Okay, okay, go ahead. I know you want to kill me. Now, some things I want to make clear: I will most probably not update in a while. I will work on it every chance I get, but I like reading. And I have a shit load of crap to take care of, such as marching band. Yes, I am in a marching band. That and I have better things to do, no offense. XD**

**Anyways, for those of you ppl who wanted her to regain her memories (Rini gains Rukia's memories), I can honestly say that I wouldn't like that idea. Cuz it's IchiRuki! Not IchiSome Random OC/Reincarnation the Author Made Up! See? Aren't you glad you waited? OH YEAH, I WOULD LIKE TO SAY THANKS TO 'A FRIEND OF A READER,' 'ELMONL,' 'HIKARI (WHO WAS MY 100****TH****),'CADAURNY,' '****DAEHAGLNAUD' FOR REVIEWING! ALSO, CADAURNY AND DAEHAGLNAUD DESERVE SPECIAL THANKS FOR REVIEWING NOT OUT OF OBLIGATION.**

**Hmm…, what else… can't think of much else, except stats as of right now:**

**Words: 18890**

**Chapters: 7**

**Reviews: 102**

**Hits: 11772**

**c2s: 3**

**Favorites: 46**

**Story Alert: 72**

**Profile Views: 437**

**WOW! Thanks to anyone who contributed to any of these stats. Please review!**

**Geez, I just looked up 'offense' compared to 'offence.' Sorry, that was random. But I think you should know, in the US, offense is more generally accepted, while offence in the UK is more generally accepted. Offense as in 'no offense.' Offence as in a law offence.**


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